Star Wars has been recognized to recast roles now and again, and the most recent instance of this got here in Andor Season 2, which concluded its run on the 2025 TV schedule just some days in the past. The season’s sixth episode, titled “What a Festive Night,” noticed Bail Organa lastly showing on the sequence, solely as an alternative of Jimmy Smits reprising him, Benjamin Bratt was now taking part in the character. It seems, nevertheless, that Bratt pitched having Bail seem earlier in Andor, and it could’ve been nice to see this pulled off.
Throughout an interview with EW, Benjamin Bratt shared how he’d heard Andor creator Tony Gilroy used the phrase “keen” to explain his method to becoming a member of the solid and his work. The actor agreed with this description, to the purpose that after making pals with “Al” (presumably Alistair Petrie, who reprised his Rogue One position of Normal Draven) and Genevieve O’Reilly, who performs Mon Mothma, he pitched having Bail Organa seem throughout the marriage ceremony sequence in “Harvest.” That sequence was going to be shot “on the finish of the schedule,” and therein lied the issue, with Bratt saying:
I mentioned, ‘I do know you have completed this intelligent little reveal for Bail in episode 6, and we have already shot that and it’s totally efficient, however it may nonetheless work within the story although. Ought to we not ponder that I’ve this deep and long-term friendship with my fellow senator, Mon? I imply, would not it make sense that I’d be on the marriage ceremony displaying up with a present?’ He mentioned, ‘I really like your enthusiasm, however it’s a really costly thought. It’s miles too late for that.’
There was loads going throughout the reception that adopted the marriage between Leida Mothma and Stekan Sculdun, from Mon’s drunken dance sequence to Luthen Rael deciding that Tay Kola wanted to be killed. Nonetheless, given how shut Mon and Bail Organa had been, I agree with Benjamin Bratt it could have made sense for the latter to be current at this special day. Even together with his duties because the senator of Alderaan maintaining busy, certainly he would’ve made time to indicate up, proper?
Alas, there simply wasn’t any financially possible strategy to squeeze Bratt into Andor Season 2’s third episode, and I also can perceive the place Tony Gilroy was coming from. From needing to carve out time in Bratt’s schedule so he may shoot the sequence and adjusting his contract for the Star Wars present, needing to rewrite that portion of “Harvest” to accomodate Bail Organa, this simply couldn’t be completed. So both Bail actually was too busy to look on the marriage ceremony, or you may simply think about that he was current for it, we simply by no means noticed him onscreen.
It’s onerous to say if we’ll see Bail Organa in any upcoming Star Wars films and TV exhibits. And if he does, will Benjamin Bratt proceed to inhabit the position or will Jimmy Smits take it again? For now, these all for persevering with to comply with together with Bail ought to take a look at the recently-released The Masks of Worry, the primary guide within the Star Wars: Reign of the Empire trilogy.