Tony Gilroy talks ‘Andor’ Season 2’s Secret off-screen Bix mission

Showrunner and creator Tony Gilroy shares more details on season 2.

The Emmy Award-winning series Andor impressed viewers with its thoughtful exploration of mature subject matter, becoming a breath of much-needed fresh air for the Star Wars franchise.

In Season 2, the final episodes lead directly into the opening scenes of Rogue One, resulting in one of the most exciting conclusions to any Star Wars series to date.

Although the show may have concluded, there are still specific storyline details being revealed about significant changes, compressed storylines, and “thousands” of ideas that did not make it into the final cut.

This week, The Hollywood Reporter’s Brian Davids sat down with Tony Gilroy, who is currently writing and directing the drama film Behemoth!, produced by Searchlight Pictures and starring Pedro Pascal and Eva Victor. He opened up about a specific mission involving Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) that was originally considered for season 2 but was ultimately relegated off-screen, mostly due to its immense budget constraints.

The scene highlighted the high-stakes, dangerous nature of their work taking place in a safe house where the two discussed a recent mission where Cassian had killed someone who seen their faces.

In the interview, Davids asked Gilroy the reasoning behind what prevented the scene from being cut and whether it was due to budgetary constraints.

“No, but there are other things that we did for budgetary reasons. Gilroy said. I put a [Bix and Cassian mission] off screen. In the first scene at the safe house [in 204], they’re talking about a mission they just came off of where he killed somebody who saw their faces. So often in films or whatever, it’s not what you want to say; it’s where you can say it. Where’s the opportunity to do it? It certainly would’ve been fun and easy to write interesting things for them to do together, but where do you put it? How does it fit? What’s its application? So it happens to take place off screen in the year before the Coruscant safe house.”

While Gilroy didn’t share much specifics, the scene sounds like it would’ve given a little more insight into their struggles as they deal with hiding from a tyrannical Empire.

With the showrunner now moved on to other projects, he still expresses his profound satisfaction with his work on Andor, describing it as the most significant achievement of his professional career.

“We did our last guild Q&A last night with [writers] Tom Bissell and Danny [Gilroy]. We’re really at the end of talking about it. They’re putting together a coffee table book, The Art of Andor, and they asked me to write a foreword for it. I had a whole bunch of homework while I was doing the movie, and I kept looking at it, going, “What is this?” So I finally opened the book, and I was like, “Oh my God.” I wasn’t just incredibly nostalgic. Every page has ideas that we talked about over the course of a million meetings, and it’s just so good. The whole thing was just so overwhelming.” Gilroy said.

The legacy of the series, especially with its gritty, mature, and character-driven approach, has indeed set a new high standard for Star Wars storytelling, having won five Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the episode “Welcome to the Rebellion.” That specific writing award is a remarkable achievement for a franchise that usually dominates only in technical categories.

It is my sincere hope that Disney and Lucasfilm draw inspiration from Tony and his crew’s success for upcoming Star Wars projects. The world needs more Andor, especially right now.

All episodes of Andor are now available only on Disney+. As always, may the Force be with you….