In the course of the two weeks “Andor” writers gathered on the SoHo Grand Lodge in New York to interrupt the second season, Beau Willimon was within the room. He even introduced the whiteboards they used for brainstorming and his personal assistant to take notes. However within the subsequent weeks, when the small employees dispersed to stipulate their particular person episodes and write the preliminary drafts, Willimon held conferences with showrunner Tony Gilroy over Zoom.
On the identical time he was writing “Andor,” he traveled abroad to work on one other mission: a documentary on Russia’s assault on Ukraine, which meant working in a nation underneath siege. “You realize, I didn’t inform Tony I used to be over there,” Willimon stated in an interview with IndieWire. “However at a sure level, he figured it out.”
Struggle was already prime of thoughts for the “Andor” group. Willimon stated the writers talked about Ukraine “rather a lot” whereas breaking Season 2. It was February 2022, the run-up to Russia’s invasion. However being there, it goes with out saying, was completely different.
“It actually did, I believe not directly, taste not less than among the work I did on my episodes,” he stated. “Struggle and excessive stakes and listening to air raid sirens and being in a extremely militarized surroundings — none of that was summary for me. It was all very actual. Rockets have been exploding just some miles from the place I used to be staying. So how can that not, to a level, infuse itself right into a story the place there’s a few of those self same parts? Not that there have been any direct parallels, per se, however the surroundings actually knowledgeable among the work I used to be doing.”
Because the lead-in to “Rogue One,” “Andor” Season 2 chronicles a dangerous 4 years within the “Star Wars” timeline. The Empire’s authoritarian attain widens and tightens. To struggle again, the Revolt grows and matures. Ghorman turns into a crucial battleground when the Empire occupies its a peaceable capital metropolis and escalates a battle for its personal nefarious beneficial properties. Residents face nightly curfews, and armed militia march on public streets. Bombs go off. Arrests are made. Struggle breaks out.
The parallels between what’s occurring in a galaxy far, distant and what’s occurring proper right here on Earth couldn’t be extra clear. Since its premiere, “Andor” has been adopted by real-world resistance teams, whether or not they’re combating state-driven genocide, the rise of fascism, or an illegal occupation. Willimon burdened that “Andor” wasn’t written with “direct parallels” in thoughts, however dwelling in a rustic being torn aside by battle “actually knowledgeable among the work I used to be doing.”
Historic precedent, so typically repeated, was additionally a “enormous a part of the method” for shaping Season 2.
“We have been consistently cherry-picking completely different moments in historical past that we might use as inspiration, or to place a gloss on a sure story facet of ‘Andor,’” Willimon stated. “The character of the present, but additionally the franchise generally, is that it has the room, the breadth, and depth to have the ability to take in lots of completely different historic occasions. [‘Star Wars’] can transpose them in ways in which present a sure form of dramatic distance. [It can] enable us to know these occasions higher as a result of they’re put by means of this filter.”
Willimon stated he and the Gilroy brothers are all historical past buffs. They suggest historical past podcasts to one another “on a regular basis” and savor episodes of Dan Carlin’s “Hardcore Historical past.”
“Lots of the themes within the present are issues that people have been coping with for millennia, clearly,” Willimon stated. “Kyle [Soller] had a fantastic quote, which I’ll steal proper now and should butcher a bit: That is the type of present that will’ve been as related 100 years in the past as it’s in the present day, and the hope is that it’ll be related– Nicely, in some methods you hope it’s not related 100 years from now as a result of among the points it’s touching upon go to some core flaws in humanity, proper? However these themes and historic paradigms and political moments are evergreen. So it was pure to attract from historical past.”
Reflecting recognizable moments in time not solely helps add dramatic heft to “Andor’s” numerous area battles, it could possibly additionally assist encourage viewers on a visceral stage — as could be very a lot the case in a celebrated scene from the top of Episode 5, “I Have Buddies In all places,” written by Willimon.
Set on a wet distant planet in the course of a dangerous heist, the Revolt’s extremist chief Noticed Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) delivers a rousing speech evaluating the extremely risky gasoline rhydonium to the resistance itself. Ostensibly, Noticed’s phrases are meant for his latest recruit, Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier), who’s serving to him pilfer the possibly deadly vitality supply. However as Noticed continues talking, his enthusiasm proves contagious, each for Wilmon and the viewers at house.
“Have you ever ever seen a person die from rhydonium?,” Noticed says. “Perhaps you’re like me. Perhaps you like … [sniffs] the odor of it. And perhaps you breathe just a bit too deeply. Burned from the within. You watch your pores and skin blister because it melts away. Or, you die loud. Lower a line? Drop a wrench? Let it spill? Don’t even want a spark, do you, boy?”
When requested to share the scene’s origins — particularly given his proximity to an precise battle whereas writing the episode — Willimon’s rationalization was so thorough and beneficiant, it’s price sharing in full (with a number of gentle edits for readability):
“At first, what else is going on within the episode?”
“You don’t begin out saying, ‘OK, we’re going to have a giant speech for Noticed Gerrera, the place he type of outlines his thesis and his motivation, and that we attempt to do one thing impactful that can blow lots of people’s minds and have a subreddit thread’ or one thing,” Willimon stated. “You actually simply begin from a really pedestrian place of crafting story. And there have been a number of issues happening in that episode that contributed to that speech.”
These different story arcs (cited by Willimon) embrace:
- Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) “standing as much as Emperor Palpatine” by lobbying for votes within the Senate.
- “A nascent, inexperienced, insurgent underground” in Ghorman making ready to take their first main motion in opposition to the Empire.
- Bix (Adria Arjona) “coping with the PTSD” from her imprisonment, torture, and subsequent assaults, all by the hands of the Empire.
- In the meantime, Noticed Gerrera is working on the “outer fringes, simply making an attempt to get some jet gasoline to maintain elevating hell throughout the galaxy.”
“We wished to point out how the formation of the Revolt is the amalgamation of all these extraordinarily disparate elements; that it’s a spectrum, [stretching from] a senator on Coruscant to the madness of Noticed Gerrera and his motley crew on the market in the course of nowhere,” Willimon stated. “We actually wished to point out how this stuff coexist, [despite being] to date aside and so completely different. No matter the Aristocracy and pomp and circumstance there may be within the Senate, on the opposite finish of the spectrum is the insanity that’s Noticed Gerrera.”
“So that you begin asking your self: What kind of issues is Noticed as much as?”
From there, Willimon stated shaping Noticed’s story got here from “fascinated with juxtaposition” — furthering the contrasts between “Andor’s” insurgent characters whereas strengthening their connection to the trigger. One key juxtaposition got here in how the viewers understood Noticed earlier than and after this second.
Up to now, Noticed “has been reluctant to play with others,” as Willimon put it, however he’s nonetheless a key member of the Insurgent group, so why not construct that in?
“As loopy as he may appear on this arc, he’s nonetheless, to a level, taking part in ball. He’s working with one in every of Luthen’s guys,” Willimon stated. “Now, we’d assume, ‘Perhaps not. Perhaps he’s going to kill this man. Perhaps he’s simply utilizing them.’ That’s actually what we’d anticipate of Noticed.”
“I believe the large shock on the finish of [the scene] is even Noticed Gerrera is welcome. You’re a part of our tribe and we’re a part of yours. It’s the least doubtless place you anticipate to listen to it: that all of us share this madness of wanting to vary the galaxy and struggle the powers that be. It connects us, [even] a man who more often than not is like, ‘I don’t wish to have something to do with anybody else.’”
“Wilmon Paak, which Tony slipped [in] — I didn’t title that character.”
Regardless of the phonetic similarities, Willimon didn’t give you the title Wilmon, however the younger farmhand is the following crucial step towards Noticed’s massive scene. By Episode 5, Wilmon has been shipped off to assist Noticed construct a machine that may safely extract rhydonium.
“We’re monitoring this child who’s more and more changing into a participant [in the Rebellion]. We’re seeing his coming of age,” Willimon stated. “So over the course of this episode, you’re additionally simply making an attempt to trace what happens for Wilmon to progress him from a man that’s simply making an attempt to work on this piece of engineering to really feeling the riot in his bones.”
“The cherry on prime right here is that now we have Forest Whitaker [playing] Noticed Gerrera, a beloved character who’s completely wackadoodle,” Willimon stated. “So you’ve the chance to do one thing tremendous bizarre and funky. With all of these issues in thoughts, what can we wish to do on this scene? In fact, there’s a facet of let’s give Forest Whitaker one thing juicy to do.”
“However in a really possible way, what’s [Saw] saying to this child?”
“Why is he even speaking to him?,” Willimon stated. “He’s simply standing there whereas this child is doing this factor? It felt like we wanted to activate that scene.”
Certainly, contemplating he’s in the course of a life-or-death mission, no matter rigidity exists within the scnee ought to be coming from Wilmon’s difficult procurement of the rhydonium. However as Noticed retains speaking, the main target shifts. It’s not about whether or not Wilmon will steal the rhydo with out dying from the publicity; it’s about if Wilmon will settle for the hazard he’s going through on this mission is similar hazard he’ll all the time face as a insurgent. How a lot of himself is he prepared to present to the trigger? His sweat? His blood? His life?
“Revolution is just not for the sane,” Noticed says. “Have a look at us. Unloved. Hunted. Cannon fodder. We’ll all be lifeless earlier than the Republic is again and but… right here we’re. The place are you boy? You’re right here! You’re proper right here! And also you’re able to struggle. Breathe it in! Let it run! Let it run wild!”
With that stupendous flourish (made all of the extra memorable by Whitaker’s triumphant oration), Wilmon inhales the very factor he was terrified to the touch a couple of minutes prior. And, on the identical time, astute followers come to find a key piece of Noticed Gerrera’s backstory: why he wears a masks in “Rogue One.”
“We weren’t certain within the first cross precisely what it was, however then the concept got here to us: ‘Wait a second. The reply is Forest all alongside. It’s been in “Rogue One” [but in “Andor”], we haven’t seen him with the masks. Right here’s a possibility to perhaps clarify the way you get to that in ‘Rogue One.’”
“It looks like all of that is tremendous intentional, like we’ve reverse-engineered it again to this second, the place you get to kill a number of birds with one stone, which isn’t solely can we get to have our Forest Whitaker aria, and never solely can we get to advance the story and present the juxtaposition of all these prongs of the riot, however on prime of all of that we are able to additionally say for this reason he’s respiratory into this masks in ‘Rogue One.’”
“Then it simply took on a lifetime of its personal.”
As did “Andor” — a “Star Wars” story that’s constructed to final.
“Andor” is on the market on Disney+.