STAR WARS Boss Dave Filoni Doesn’t Hate ANDOR, Says Creator Tony Gilroy: “There’s no Andor without The Mandalorian”
If you’ve spent any time scrolling through Star Wars Reddit or fan pages, you’ve probably seen the reports that there might be tension between Lucasfilm’s new creative chief Dave Filoni and Andor creator Tony Gilroy. Did the tonal shift between Andor and The Mandalorian spark some behind-the-scenes friction?
According to Gilroy, you can all stand down.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Tony Gilroy shut down the idea that there’s any bad blood between him and Dave Filoni or Jon Favreau. When asked directly about rumors that Filoni wasn’t a fan of Andor, Gilroy answered simply:
"No. We’ve only met a couple times, and we’ve only had a half-a-dozen conversations over the last ten years. Seriously. I saw Jon Favreau at a scoring session once. We’ve always gotten along with those guys, and we’ve never had anything but high praise for everything that they’ve done."
So where did all this speculation come from?
There was never any official report of a feud. Instead, it was the internet doing what the internet does. Around the release of Andor Season 2, online debate kicked into high gear.
A 2025 thread on the r/StarWars subreddit asked fans to weigh in on the so-called Gilroy vs. Filoni divide, and things spiraled into a larger argument about tone, style, and what Star Wars should feel like going forward.
On one side, you’ve got the grounded, political slow-burn of Andor. On the other, the mythic, adventure-driven energy of The Mandalorian. Some fans framed it like a creative standoff. Gilroy doesn’t see it that way at all.
In fact, he credits Filoni and Favreau’s show for making his own possible:
"We only have our show because of them, and we’ve always said that was true. There’s no Andor without The Mandalorian. It would not exist. So it has never been anything but cordial and pleasant, ever, ever, ever, ever. I don’t know anything that you don’t know. I really don’t."
It’s also a reminder of how interconnected modern Star Wars really is. The Mandalorian proved that live-action Star Wars could thrive on Disney+. That success gave Lucasfilm the confidence to greenlight something as tonally distinct as Andor. Different flavors, same galaxy.
While Andor was always planned as a tight two-season story, its impact has been massive. The full series is now streaming on Disney+, offering fans one of the most grounded and politically charged entries in the franchise.
Meanwhile, The Mandalorian is gearing up for the jump to the big screen with The Mandalorian & Grogu, the first live-action Star Wars movie to hit theaters since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. The film stars Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, with David Accord providing the voice of Grogu, and it lands in theaters on May 22.
If anything, Gilroy’s comments make one thing clear. This isn’t a rivalry. It’s a shared universe built by different storytellers bringing their own strengths to the table.