Andor Season 2 Almost Featured A Cameo From A Major Star Wars Character

"Andor" might be officially over, but the reactions, revelations, and discussions surrounding the most acclaimed live-action "Star Wars" series ever certainly aren't going anywhere anytime soon. After spending years getting to know Diego Luna's Cassian Andor with far more subtlety and nuance than "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" ever had time for, we now know exactly what made him into the hardened Rebel operative we saw in the 2016 movie. Yet, even this sprawling, 12-episode final season had quite a few surprises up its sleeve — not all of which ultimately made the final cut.

Creator and writer Tony Gilroy has been making the press rounds lately (including a recent conversation with /Film's very own Ben Pearson), and in one particular interview, he opened up about his original plans for a major original trilogy cameo that was simply not to be. The timeline of "Andor" allowed quite a few appearances from legacy characters that fans know and love, from integral figures such as Genevieve O'Reilly's Senator Mon Mothma to Forest Whitaker's extremist Saw Gerrera to the rather unexpected surprise of Bail Organa (originally played by Jimmy Smits in the prequel movies, but recast as Benjamin Bratt). But, as it turns out, he wasn't the only Organa who Gilroy once thought about including in this revolutionary story of the Rebellion first taking shape under the oppressive might of the Empire.

In a new interview with Screen Rant, Gilroy explained why he briefly considered a cameo appearance by none other than a young Princess Leia Organa ... and why those plans ultimately went the way of the Death Star: 

"There were some conversations early on [...] This is in the sketching stage. This is in the really soggy beginning, trying to figure out what to do because I was trying to make that Investiture Week idea. I was trying to get the most out of that Investiture Week and those parties, and we have [Davo Sculden's] party now ... and we're making a thing out of it. And we were trying to find out on the timeline where she would be in the Senate." 

Here's why those plans didn't come together.

"Andor" may be named after its title character, but Rebellions are built on hope (as "Rogue One" first taught us), and that hope comes from countless individuals fighting for the cause. One of those Rebels who could've shown up in the flesh might very well have been Princess Leia herself, the beloved leader — originally played by the late, great Carrie Fisher — who made a "cameo" of sorts at the very end of "Rogue One." Obviously, she would've had to be recast again should she ever have appeared in "Andor." It wouldn't have been the first time that happened, either, as she was previously portrayed by child actor Vivien Lyra Blair in the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" Disney+ miniseries in 2022 and by Billie Lourd, Fisher's real-life daughter, in a brief flashback scene in "Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker."

But those plans never fully materialized for "Andor," as Tony Gilroy went on to reveal in the same interview with Screen Rant. This would've revolved around the Investiture Week storyline that takes place during the episodes 4-6 arc, which is basically an excuse for wealthy Coruscant patrons (like the seedy antagonist Davo Sculdun, played by Richard Dillane) to throw extravagant parties ... and occasionally host bitter political disputes between rivals like Mon Mothma and Imperial Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). But that storyline could've included an extra wild card if a teenage Leia had arrived on the scene as well, likely in the company of her father, Bail. For better or worse, however, this didn't come to pass. According to Gilroy:

"There were some nutrients for a scene between [Leia] and Mothma that, if she was going there at [age] 16 and Mothma had gone to the Senate when she was 16, there was some basic cool things for a scene, but it never got past that, and it never went to the casting stage, or it never got more real than that. I remember talking to [Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy] about it and talking to [Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo] about it, but it never got traction, and then it became a distraction."

With as many moving parts as this arc and the season overall had to juggle, it's probably for the best that this extra bit of fan service ended up getting scrapped — as cool as it might've been. The entirety of "Andor" season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.