Ben Mendelsohn Joins ANDOR Season 2 as The First Footage Screens at D23
During Lucasfilm’s segment of Disney’s D23 Expo event, the first footage was screening for the highly anticipated second season of Tony Gilroy’s Andor.
It was revealed in that footage that Ben Mendelsohn has joined the cast of the series and he is reprising his role as the villain Orson Krennic.
It was previously rumored that Mendelsohn would be returning to the series, and well… it’s been confirmed, and it makes complete sense that he would play a part in this next chapter of the story.
The footage also featured Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), the security droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly).
Diego Luna said at the event: "Rogue One changed my life. I’ve lived with Cassian Andor for 10 years now. Being able to complete this story that starts with Season 1 to Rogue One, is great.
“In the first season, we go through a single year. He lives under the rule of the empire. Got a taste of courage," he told attendees.
"This second part of the story will follow Cassian over a four-year period as he grows into the rebel hero we know in Rogue one.
“In this season, the stakes are greater, enemies more organized, and clock is ticking. Empire threat grows, Andor has a high purpose, freedom and a better tomorrow."
The reveal was included in a behind-the-scenes highlight reel from the making of Season 2, which teased a bigger, more intense story is coming.
According to writer and showrunner Tony Gilroy, the next season might be the most important story he’s ever told.
He previously said: “I’ve had a lot of fun over the years, but I don’t know whether I’ve ever done anything as important as these 24 hours of storytelling we’re doing now.”
Gilroy concluded, saying: “I don’t know if it’s just because it’s the thing I’m on, but I don’t think so. I’ve never had a chance to work this big before so it’s a pretty big deal for me.”
The second season will conclude the series and take us through the years of Cassian Andor's journey as a spy for The Rebellion and how he tracked down the secret of The Death Star's construction. The story leads right up to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
He previously teased the end of the series, sharing that the creative team knows “exactly where we’re going” and that it’s been “creatively potent” to know where the story is going.
He said: “If you know your ending, it really helps. We know exactly where we’re going. You know what you have to deliver emotionally and what the story has to do. It’s a decision borne of survival, but it’s good for us creatively.”
Gilroy explained how the story will play out in the final season of the series, saying: “When we come back later, it’ll be literally like a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And then, we’ll jump a year, and then it’ll be, like, four or five days, and then we’ll jump a year, and then there’ll be another four or five days, and then we jump a year, and be another four or five days.”
He added: “I don’t know whether anybody ever did it before because I don’t know if anybody had a chance to do it before. We’re in the brand-new era of making these shows.
“These shows are all new. This whole idea of how to make these shows, and the economic scale of them is new, and everything’s new.”
Every three episodes in Andor Season 2 will cover one year's worth of story, and when previously talking about what we can expect from the series, he explains that it explores the stresses, heartbreak, and triumphs of the growing rebellion: "Think about the revolution, and think about it from Luthen Rael's point of view, and Saw Gerrera's point of view, and Mon Mothma's point of view.”
He continued: “They've started off as original gangsters in this thing, and it's underground, and it's secret, and it's small, and it's isolated, and contained. In four years, it's going to go big. Think about any restaurant that you knew that started off as a coffee shop, think about any startup company.
“What happens? Things get very complicated. If your stock and trade of your business is paranoia, and secrecy, and betrayal, and heavy consequences, expanding your business is really difficult."
Gilroy went on to say: "Then think about it from the Imperial side and they are getting very, very close to a very important energy project. People may have heard of it. It's an energy project.
“I guess that's not a surprise, but I think you'll see the wear and tear, you'll see all the stresses, all the heartbreak, and all the triumph of the 20 or 30 people that we're carrying forward, with Cassian at the center.
“You'll see those people stumble forward into a very complicated bit of chaos and history that we will pay attention to.”
He added: "We're gonna work the calendar. There are events on our calendar and you know what they are, some of them, and they're very important, and we will play those out."
I can’t wait for this series!