"No Baby Yoda, No ANDOR": Tony Gilroy Credits THE MANDALORIAN for Launching His STAR WARS Series

Tony Gilroy, the mastermind behind Andor, doesn’t have a problem giving credit where credit is due when it comes to getting his show off the ground.

While speaking with Empire magazine, Gilroy made it clear that The Mandalorian’s success paved the way for his gritty Star Wars spy thriller.

“The success of The Mandalorian gave us the platform to jump off. Their success is what would fuel the whole thing. I mean, no Baby Yoda, no Andor. Seriously. Don’t think that we don’t know that.”

Gilroy’s appreciation extends directly to Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni. He pushed back against the online narratives that frame the various Star Wars creative teams as being at odds.

“Online, [people] try to drive a wedge all the time between us, and [Jon] Favreau and [Dave] Filoni. It’s horrible what people say; it’s terrible. And the truth is, we don’t have a show without them. They gave us the muscle to go.”

So if you’ve been enjoying the morally murky journey of Cassian Andor, you have Din Djarin and Grogu to thank.

As Andor heads into its final season, Gilroy and the team are wrapping up Cassian’s story in a structured, ambitious way. Season 2 is built around four three-episode arcs, each one jumping a year forward, leading directly into the events of Rogue One.

Series star Diego Luna, who’s also an executive producer, teased just how tightly the ending will tie in with the film, Rogue One. He said:

“If you have your DVD or Blu-ray of Rogue One, you should plug it in as soon as the season ends, and you’ll see a film that will be resignified.

“You’re going to see it differently, with so much information you didn’t have before. You knew nothing about this bunch of Rebels that got together and made this sacrifice, and then we did a show of 24 episodes about one of them.

“I definitely believe it’s going to change the experience because it’s now so full of answers—almost many more than you even wanted when you watched Rogue One, like who Cassian’s mother was, what was the first droid he had a strong connection with [that’ll be B2EMO], how his bedroom was… You’ve seen enough of this man now that you will go, like, ‘Holy shit, that’s what he meant?’”

Andor Season 2 premieres April 22 on Disney+.