‘Andor’ creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy discusses the complexity of ‘Star Wars’ canon, including the hierarchy of strict canon for his ‘Rogue One’ prequel.
Andor is the latest Star Wars prequel streaming series. After Obi-Wan Kenobi told stories prior to A New Hope, Andor tells the story of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Rogue One itself was a prequel to A New Hope about the rebels who stole the plans to the Death Star. Andor creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy promised the show wouldn’t violate Star Wars canon, but wouldn’t stick to it strictly either.
Gilroy was on a Television Critics Association Zoom panel on Aug. 3. He shared his thoughts on Star Wars canon as it pertains to Andor. Andor premieres Sept. 21 on Disney+.
‘Andor’ respects ‘Star Wars’ canon, but it’s a lot
By Rogue One, you already see who Andor became, and followed him to the end of his life. Gilroy promised some surprises along the way, but he still had to color within the Star Wars lines.
“Let’s put it that way. Does that make sense? It’s very difficult. You can spend a long time talking about the levels and complications of Star Wars canon. You know, just go on Wookieepedia for an hour-and-a-half and tool around, and you’ll get a very clear idea of how much is going on. It’s fascinating.”
Tony Gilroy knows ‘Star Wars‘ canon
Gilroy was a screenwriter on Rogue One and directed reshoots on the film. He already has experience with the Star Wars mythology, but the 12-episode Andor series ran into even more risks of violating canon. Even questions about the Andor comic book were too complicated to address specifically.
“Look, this is very complicated, and it is very difficult to answer such a complicated question that so many people care,” Gilroy said. “And if you think about Star Wars as the Roman Catholic Church or you think about it as a religion it has all kinds of factions and groups and apocrypha and legends and within it, there are all kinds of canon.”
Not all ‘Star Wars’ canon is canon
Gilroy respects what is official Star Wars canon. However, with the larger extended universe, some material is a little looser. Gilroy wouldn’t specify at which materials Andor drew the line.
“There are various levels of canon in the Star Wars world, and there’s elaborate and beautiful fan fiction, and there’s the comic books,” Gilroy said. “We are constantly in touch with the Vatican about what we do. We are, and constantly checking everything we do, and over the past three years, I’ve been on this three years now, you know, we have a very complicated relationship with how we deal with everything that exists.”
So it’s probably safe to say that anything from the movies or Disney+ series is strictly canon. With Kathleen Kennedy in charge of Lucasfilm, every property revolves around the films. Even Lucasfilm decided the expanded universe novels would no longer be canon when they continued the movies.
But, Andor was an original character from the Disney era films. Still, any other media developed around Andor probably isn’t strictly pertinent to the show.
