In the case of actions of rebellion, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is preaching the value of patience – and Diego Luna agrees with him. The “Star Wars” star and the executive producer of “Andor” has found that a narrative path through the year -long time jumps in season 2 and one of the show’s great forces is how it spends its time in some important places each and develops rich, distinct cultures, especially those that the galatic imperiac will probably destroy.
Season 1 really goes into bricks and mortar (or stone and heaven, if you prefer) from Cassian’s second home at Ferrix, and part of the depth of that place can reasonably be bound to the fact that a bunch of characters we care about live there.
The second arc of Season 2 finds Cassian, Bix (Adria Arjona) and Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier) each under very different circumstances, and each very isolated for the most part. But Luna says that the great skill of the creator Tony Gilroy’s writer and “Andor” as a series is its ability to create depth, although our main characters are strangers by showing that communities and the need for rebel is everywhere.
“In our story it is important to go deeper and understand society,” Luna told IndieWire about a section of Filmmakers Toolkit Podcast. “The social climate in Ghorman is crucial for this season, so all this investment is made in terms of stories, spent time at this location and in terms of design and building.”
This community building, appropriate, is not made in a vacuum. Luna told Indiewire that Gilroy will have long conversations with him about his character, with his most important collaborators and writers, and develop the physics in a place long before the scripts are written.
“Tony does not write a scene just by himself, then gives a production designer the material and (tells them) to design something where it can happen. It is on the contrary. They sit together, they design a place, they talk about how the cameras will be there, where the microphones are; it will not be a round table but a square.”
With the level of specificity, with Luna who knows if his Ghorman tea will be placed on the right or left, there is a real sense of place on which the actors, kinematographers and directors can all build on. But the foundation is designed to be much richer and faster than the audience will ever take in on their own, as the scripts continue from an understanding of music, economy, style, language, status and values.
In other words, culture comes first for “Andor” and creates the efforts for the characters. “That’s what I love about this show and this format – it allows us to go deep and be patience and witness reality, whereby life’s reality lives,” Luna said.
One sense of lived reality, as much as the realization of Luke Hull’s production design or Michael Wilkinson’s Space French resistance costumes for Ghor, is what creates an arena for the characters to make meaningful choices. “The trick for (Gilroy’s) writing is sometimes,” Why do we see this? “That’s because you remember this moment when this place is in danger. Something must be on the line.”
Whether it is Ferrix or Ghorman or, with negative contrast, the halls in the ISB, the level of detail and the care that goes into arrested usual moments creates the same reaction in both Cassian Andor and the “Andor” group. “You go,“ Well, wouldn’t you fight for it? “You understand,” Luna said.
Luna’s work on building that understanding goes beyond the assignments that Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) sets up for Cassian. As an executive producer, he is involved early before he prepares to create the great understanding of what every movement in the story is looking to achieve and then becomes the man on the ground with that understanding to ensure that everyone from day players to directors rowers in the same direction.
“Everything must happen at the same time,” Luna said. “I am the guy on the set, where Tony is not and (executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg) is in and out but never there 24-7 and where Kathleen Kennedy only comes to visit once in a while. I am the one to make sure that (Gilroy’s) vision continues, explained to everyone.”
The shared vision is important on the set, but part of what creates the tension is how many characters is not rowed in the same direction. Both rebellion and empire are cracked things, and the show is as interested in society’s cracks as creating them. That, Luna believes, is part of why the show really works as a prequel. We know where Cassian will eventually end up, but not how he gets there, what it will cost and what will happen to a large group of characters along the way.
“It’s called” Andor “but I mean, come on, it is clearly an ensemble piece where it is about a society,” Luna said. “They needed an end. They needed a bow. We needed to get somewhere with them all.”
Of course, from what it will be, Luna must be careful about spoilers for the rest of the series. But he feels comfortable saying what will be behind the choices that each of the “Andor” ensemble will make.
“It is obvious that Cassian (is starting to build) his own understanding of an uprising, his own agenda and his moral standards. I think the second season is pretty much about love. It is about the love stories you find in these societies. There is a very romantic and naive aspect about a revolution, do you know?” Said Luna. “You would not fight for a revolution if it wasn’t for love.”
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Sections 1-6 of “Andor” now flows on Disney+.
