Andor Releases 14-Minute Recap Ahead of Season 2 — Creator Tony Gilroy Details Plan to Lure New Fans
Disney+ is pulling out the big ion cannons ahead of Andor‘s long-awaited Season 2 premiere.
For one, the streamer has released a Season 1 recap video, seen above, that clocks in at a robust 14 minutes and gets you caught up on the first 12 episodes of the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story prequel series.
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Additionally, the entirety of Andor Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu (through April 22, when Season 2 launches), and the series’ first three episodes are available on the Disney+ YouTube channel.
Lastly, on Thursday, March 13, starting at 3 pm ET, the Disney+ YouTube channel will host “Andor Season 1 With Tony Gilroy,” a live re-watch event hosted by the series’ creator and featuring a discussion with special guests (TBA), their reactions to key scenes, behind-the-scenes intel and the opportunity for fans to ask questions.
TVLine spoke with Andor creator Gilroy about the recap video’s tough edit, and his grander plan to lure non-Star Wars fans in time for Season 2.
TVLINE | The 14-minute Season 1 recap video is excellent. What I like about it is it’s recap-y to a degree, but the end just felt like vibes.
I know, right? Exactly. The kids put that together in London. It was really good. We let all the assistant editors do the Previously Ons — they all get to do it, and we give notes — but that was a big one, and a bunch of people worked on it. And man, they did a great job. But it does exactly that. It tells you, but it also makes you feel like what we wanted you to feel like.
TVLINE | What were your marching orders for that edit? What was the edict?
Well, we started off doing a “Previously On,” and the Previously Ons are usually, like, two minutes, so we were like, “All right, you get seven minutes.” And then we watched it and were like, “We can’t have that.” We opened it up and said, “Get it all in there,” then it was a question of, “How do you get it all in there?” And they just kept working it and working it. We’re proud of them, they did a really good job.
TVLINE | Because you hit on a lot of the key stuff — “I can’t swim,” “That’s just love”….
Yeah. We really need this because we’ve been away for a while. I’m hoping that there’s an audience that’ll watch the 14-minute recap that hasn’t even seen the first season, and they’ll go, like, “Oh, this looks so hip, I want to go back and watch it.”
TVLINE | And they’ll have time to.
I hope so. I hope so.
TVLINE | Did you have any message to marketing ahead of Season 2? Because you’ve been off the air for two-and-a-half years?
I mean, we’ve been working really closely and well together. They’re really great over there, and we’ve had such great support from them all the way through. So, it’s not really like a “message,” but I really fixated on trying to get the audience that we [don’t already have]. I have friends of mine who love my work, or people I would meet, who go on about Michael Clayton or go on about something else, and then, “Well, have you seen my show?” “Well, no, it’s Star Wars. I don’t really….” So I’m trying to win that audience over, to let people know that this is the most important thing I’ll ever work on, and I’m more proud of it than anything I’ve ever worked on. So, I’m trying to pick up a few of those people. I’m sure the marketing department has some other demos that they probably want to go for, but that’s the one I was the most interested in.
TVLINE | The scheduling for Season 2 is interesting, the way it turned out. Three episodes a week across four weeks gets everything out in time for Emmy consideration, but does it also work for you, as an auteur? Does each three-episode “chapter” happen to end with a cliffhanger?
No, it wouldn’t be like that. The people who made the show, we really feel like what we did is we made eight movies in five-and-a-half years. That’s how we think of it. We made eight Star Wars movies in five-and-a-half years, and that’s how we shoot them. The directors come in and do blocks of three, so it’s baked into our whole psyche from the moment we started. “Three, three, three, three, three….” Uh, I think it makes it hard for podcasters. [Laughs] I think a couple of people are going to have to stay up late, and there’s going to be some extra broadcasting. I don’t know how that’s going to work, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m really into it.
I will miss…. I mean, it was super groovy to, like, roll out [Season 1] for, like, three months — it was like Christmas every Wednesday. But I’m into this. I like this idea.
TVLINE | What kind of run times did you end up with on the Season 2 episodes? What’s the range?
Oh, it’s the same kind of thing. Like, anywhere from 39 to 55 [minutes]? Somewhere…I really, honestly, don’t know. There are some shorter ones, there are some longer ones, but they’re all, in aggregate, about the same as they were [in Season 1].
TVLINE | Anything almost over an hour?
I don’t think so. No, no, I don’t think so. No. No.
TVLINE | The teaser trailers that have come out so far feature some striking, already-iconic imagery. I think of, like, the TIE Fighter in the all-white hangar…. Did you use The Volume at all for this season? I know you steered away from it in Season 1.
No, I mean, I wish we could use it. Everybody always asks, but we can’t use it. There are places where it probably would’ve been really helpful for us to use it, but it’s a complete reversal of your workflow. When you use The Volume, you do all your post-production first, and then you plug the actors in at the very end. Our whole workflow is exactly the opposite of that, and it’s really hard to turn a show around. Someone’s got to figure out how to do that, how to do a hybrid show — maybe they’ve even done it already — but the momentum goes in all the wrong direction. So, no. We use set extension, and we use CGI obviously, and projections and whatever, but The Volume, no. We can’t do it. It’s too different.
TVLINE | Filming on Andor Season 2 was even further removed from when Rogue One was filmed [beginning in August 2015]. Did you have to go to any lengths to youth-ify Diego Luna a bit more for Season 2? Is the Cassian that walks out of the Season 2 finale going to be a good physical match for the Cassian we meet in Rogue One?
I hope so. I think so. I hope so. I mean, that’s our plan. We work for that. The technology exists, so… yeah.
Want scoop on Andor, or for any other TV show ? Shoot an email to InsideLine@tvline.com, and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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