Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy has spoken to Variety about the show’s finale and the very last shot of the Disney+ series.
Note: Beware of spoilers ahead!
I was a little surprised by how low-key Episode 12 felt after the opening sequence. It wasn’t what you usually expect for a finale.
I wasn’t worried about driving 12. It’s a very different energy. I remember talking to Tom Bissell, who did all the early drafts on that. It’s just like, “Man, do not try to push this through. Let’s just make sure it makes sense. And then let the camera work and let these actors work.” We didn’t want to kick it, no.
Why didn’t you?
I mean, it’s not unexciting, we’re not sitting around and knitting or anything. But it’s time for them to have a toast. The scene between Vel and Cassian to me is just worth its weight in gold. I normally like to keep my foot on the gas all the way through. We try to really haul ass all the time. But I didn’t really want to have that speedometer on Episode 12.
The last shot of the series is Bix holding Cassian’s infant child, which I found to be a deeply moving, hopeful image. When did that idea first arise?
Probably earlier than you think. I’m not exactly sure. But I know how grim “Rogue” is. I mean, I was there, and it’s pretty grim. We’re asking people to invest a lot of unhappiness along the way in this show. I just could not ever envision the possibility of not being hopeful. I know it’s a cheesy T-shirt kind of idea, but there has to be something hopeful. There has to be a candle. So I always had that in my back pocket. I’m not sure when I laid that out. I’m not sure if I was asking for more money or something at that point. I am sure it was a card that I played.
Why would that be a card that you would play?
I don’t own it. Disney owns it. I mean, if I need an extra shooting day, it’s certainly going to turn somebody’s head and go, “Maybe it’s worth it to get an extra shooting day out of that, because look what they’re giving us.”
So you were cracking the door for a continuing story with that shot?
Sure! Why not? That’s what hope is, isn’t it? Its provenance was not mercenary. I’m sure at certain points it helped me out, but it wasn’t there for that purpose. I would’ve done it anyway. That does three things for me at the end. No. 1, it’s for anybody who is confused about Bix leaving Cassian in 9, because it’s a very sophisticated rationale for leaving. I mean, how do you react if you feel like you’re living with someone who has a destiny, and you might be confusing that destiny? That’s a pretty subtle thing. This underlines that and says, “Oh my God, she was pregnant when she was doing that.”
It makes his sacrifice in “Rogue” just that much more epically painful: the child he’ll never see, and all the missed opportunities and the rest of it.
And then it also lets me have hope at the end. It gives me an open door, as you say. And it’s not just an open door to a theme park. It’s an open door to a real feeling for the audience and some sort of empathetic closure.
It’s also an open door to the possibility of another “Star Wars” story about Cassian’s child and Bix as an older woman.
Yeah. That’s obviously — you could do that. I could do that.
Is that a door that you would want to walk through?
No, that’s not — I mean, look, I’ve gotten used to saying, “Never say never again.” But no, I think I did my thing here. That’s how I feel today.
Read the interview in full here, and stream the finale of Andor on Disney+ now.
Image: Disney/Lucasfilm
The post Andor’s Tony Gilroy Discusses the Very Last Shot of the Disney+ Show appeared first on Jedi News.
