Genevieve O’Reilly, left, as Mon Mothra and Stellan Skarsgard as Luthen Rael in Andor season two.Des Willie/Disney+
A power-mad leader who will stop at nothing to suppress dissent. A dangerous army of bootlickers who place professional gain over righteousness. And a handful of isolated politicians who are branded traitors for speaking up against oppression. This is the all-too-familiar world of Andor, the more mature corner of the Star Wars galaxy that debuts its second (and final) season this week.
And while not nearly everything works in showrunner Tony Gilroy’s second go-round of Andor, the series’ best moments pivot around the geopolitical machinations of two key characters: Galactic Senator Mon Mothma, played with steely verve by Genevieve O’Reilly, and rebel ringleader Luthen Rael, who is given ice-cold life by Stellan Skarsgard. Ahead of Andor’s Season Two premiere, The Globe and Mail sat down with O’Reilly and Skarsgard in Toronto to talk about why rebellions are built on hope.
The politics at play here are interesting. I feel the people of the planet Ghorman are modelled on the French resistance during the Second World War. And Mon’s speech in the Galactic Senate couldn’t help but evoke the situation in the Middle East, specifically the war between Israel and Hamas. Did Tony take much time to talk about the geopolitical prism he used to view this world?
Genevieve O’Reilly: Well, I think it’s important to remember that we filmed those scenes that you’re referring to specifically two years ago, so we couldn’t have known what today held. What it really shows is that perhaps this is inevitable. Perhaps we’ve always been like this. If the Empire is a part of us, our human culture, then these events will keep happening. Perhaps peace is the exception, that’s what we have to work harder for. But no, we didn’t sit around discussing revolutions, did we?
Stellan Skarsgard: No, we didn’t talk politics at all. I mean, you see it in the script, you see it, you feel it. You don’t have to talk about it when it’s there.
So what were the conversations about?
Skarsgard: Well, you [Genevieve] talked with Tony more than I did. I was only talking about practical details – how is this character going to do that? I didn’t intellectualize it at all. I mean, your character Genevieve is so beautifully developed. How much is that your input and how much is there a feminine side of Tony?
O’Reilly: Tony writes these women very well. There were a couple moments in the end of Season One when my character is betrothing her daughter to the Empire, I was a bit gobsmacked by that. But we went there. I didn’t expect him to jump into a wedding, but he would ring me and chat about it. He writes these dynamics so beautifully. But you’re right, we don’t come on set and discuss or argue things. It’s all very curated.
That curation of this world that you’re operating in, then, it’s a fascist state, which these characters live in and fight against. Is situating this kind of political story in a Star Wars universe akin to using a fig leaf – you’re only getting to tell this kind of story about rebellion because it’s fronted by this massively commercial blockbuster series?
Skarsgard: The fig leaf … so if you showed the penis, would we destroy just billions? Genevieve, you can answer that …
O’Reilly: Tony has spoken about the idea that he was given this real estate of Star Wars. And he’s spoken about being deeply interested in history his whole life, and the idea that you could tell a story about revolution and fascism, and perhaps the umbrella of Star Wars just releases our judgment on that. Perhaps it allows us to really explore our humanity.
Skarsgard: But I don’t think he uses it as a fig leaf, because he’s not hiding anything. What he does is write a very compelling story that is so full of political and social issues. But he doesn’t forget that he has to write an adventure, and one in the Star Wars book to make it work. He could’ve written a small independent film, but it wouldn’t have been as beautiful if only 50 people saw it.
The attraction to Andor, then, was it the opportunity to balance more nuanced themes with the opportunity to, say, pilot a spaceship?
Skarsgard: The 10-year-old me loved it. But I also got to do what I saw when I was that age, when my father showed me The Scarlet Pimpernel starring Leslie Howard. I used that as a model for how Luthen acts while on [the planet] Coruscant.
Gilroy has described shooting the series as movies in chunks, rather than episodic television …
O’Reilly: We had different blocks of shooting, and there were different directors. We actually started shooting with episodes four, five and six, and then we did seven, eight and nine, then 10, 11 and 12, and finally one, two and three. So you’re jumping between those directors, and it’s just such a large scale. We had three units running at the same time, some on nights, some on days. It’s hugely ambitious.
Skarsgard: Making those four small films, we benefited because you get concentrated on making these short stories that take place over four short days, that’s it. You don’t have to bother about making the sort of emotional transitions.
It’s also very Star Wars in that you would start with episodes four, five and six and then go back later to do one, two and three.
O’Reilly: Exactly, there you go.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
The first episode of Andor Season 2 is available now on Disney+, with subsequent episodes debuting each week.
