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Just as the final act of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story neatly plugged the feature prequel into George Lucas’ Star Wars canon, so the second and final season of Disney+ series Andor will arc it’s way to the start of Rogue One. In another, not uncoincidental piece of symmetry, the editor on both projects is John Gilroy.
“Like everyone else I feel the original Star Wars (IV,
1977) was ground breaking and I was fascinated by how, on Rogue One, we
were able to touch that first movie,” Gilroy says.
For those who don’t know, the breathless finale of Rogue
One (2016) has rebel insurgents deliver plans of the Death Star to Princess
Leia.
Leading that treasonous act was Cassian Andor (Diego Lunar)
whose backstory the 24-part serial digs into. Like Gavin Hood’s film, Andor also
leans into the mud, mood and metal of a war story.
“Rogue broke some new ground in terms of its gritty look and
in its examination of character,” says Gilroy, who is also executive producer.
“Andor is all about pursuing and pushing that a little more.”
Showrunner and lead writer on the project is Gilroy’s
brother Tony who scripted four of the Jason Bourne movies as well as co-writing
Rogue One. He set Andor five years before the events of the
feature with S1 covering one year and Season 2 the next four.
Cassian, who now understands that he has a stake in the
rebellion, is more prepared to make a full commitment to the cause. “He’s going
from not involved to being soldier-like at the end of Season One, or signing
his enlistment papers in a way,” explains Tony Gilroy. “With Season Two, it’s
the move to being a leader, and even moving beyond a leader then to becoming a
hero. All of the responsibilities and sacrifices and the journey of that is
what the second half of the show is about.
“Knowing where you’re ending up is the most liberating
thing,” he adds. “It means that you can just swing away inside the edges of
that frame. We know where we’re ending up, and that frees up everything else.
The show’s codename is Pilgrim with all the characters headed on their own epic
one-way journeys. Every decision is becoming more urgent and dangerous as we
progress.”
Concerting four years of storytelling into 12 episodes was
the chief challenge in the writer’s room. They split the years into four blocks
of three episodes then had to strike a balance between providing enough context
for what happened during the slices of time audiences don’t see, and trusting
them to fill in the gaps.
“It was an interesting creative proposition to ask, ‘What do
we do with all the negative space in between?’”
They decided not to over-explain that negative space with
exposition. “What happened in that year that you need to know, and how fast can
I let you know that?” he says. “The first writing we did was to write the top
and tail of each block to make sure the jumps in time were cohesive.”
The first three episodes of the show blend three separate
storylines to reorient fans with where the characters were left at the end of
S1.
“What the structure of the second season did was it
accelerated the storyline a little bit,” says John Gilroy. “To me, it made the
story feel more urgent. Editing is about being given footage and finding the
truth. To me, it's an objective truth; it’s the filmmakers coming together
against their footage. Every episode of the show, we’re looking to find that
perfect place where every shot is supposed to go and how it’s supposed to sound
and how it’s supposed to make you feel.”
The structure of the second season presented challenges for
how the principal photography was approached. It had to include more sets,
costumes, props and effects than the first— across dozens of planets. This
entailed the build of 140 sets, 24 filming locations, over 700 costumes, the
creation of 152 creatures plus 30 droids, and over 4,100 VFX shots supervised
by ILM.
The season was filmed in four different blocks —each block
being able to take its own creative swings under the leadership of directors Ariel
Kleiman (Eps. 1-6), Janus Metz (Eps. 7-9) and Alonso Ruizpalacios (Eps. 10-12).
Lead cinematography, shooting the first 6 eps, was Belgium
Christophe Nuyens who continued to shoot as S1 on Sony Venice though this time
exchanging anamorphic glass for Panavision Ultra Vista Primes.
They predominantly shot on Pinewood stages but also rented
had three stages at Longcross. Like the first season the tone of the show was
to mix space fantasy with earth and grit, hence the practical set builds and
minimal green screen.
Some locations, such as the rebel base on Yavin and galactic
capital on Coruscant, will be familiar from Rogue One and from S1, but
with fresh perspectives, achieved by shooting at Valencia’s City of Arts and
Sciences. In particular, this real-world location was used to create a sense of
the Ivory Tower nature of upper Coruscant, and to place the Senate in an environment
where actors had space to walk and talk.
It's not a plot spoiler to know that the 12 episode will end
where Rogue One begins, with Cassian making his way to the Rings of
Kafrene where he is meeting with a rebel spy to gain intelligence about a new
Imperial threat.
“In Rogue One, Cassian gives a speech about why he’s
there and what he has done,” says Tony Gilroy. “And why it was worth it to give
his all for the cause. After watching Season Two, you will understand what he
means, because this season is leading to that moment. It’s about what he’s
talking about when he says he is ready to join and give everything he has for
change to come.”
John
Gilroy began his career working with
Francis Coppola's longtime editor Barry Malkin on Peggy Sue Got Married.
His other credits include Pacific Rim, Narc, Duplicity, the Academy
Award winning Michael Clayton and The Bourne Legacy (both directed
by Tony Gilroy) and Nightcrawler (directed by brother Dan – who
also scripted episodes of Andor).
“We are very blessed that we all get along,” John says of working with his siblings. We have a shorthand when we work together and can call each other on something—and tell each other if we feel something is bullshit.”
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