Tony Gilroy says The Mandalorian paved the way for the success of Andor: "No Baby Yoda, no Andor" (2025)

It’s hard to imagine something like Andor getting the green light nowadays. With an entire galaxy’s worth of practical sets and locations and a huge ensemble of characters, the series has a price tag of $645 million, making it the most expensive Star Wars movie/TV project ever made. Not only was the show a risky financial gamble, but fans initially weren’t even sold on the concept of a Rogue One prequel centering on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). Thankfully, the show has become a big success, and fans eagerly await the second and final season. While speaking with Empire, Andor creator Tony Gilroy credited The Mandalorian with paving the way for Andor‘s success.

“The success of The Mandalorian gave us the platform to jump off,” Gilroy said. “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… 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.“

Despite the success of Andor, Gilroy says we’ll likely never see another show like it. “Not because we’re so great,” he said, “but because no-one’s ever gonna start a show on this scale again, and shoot it practically, and have the resources and the protection to do something like this. We were protected all the way down the line. Kathy [Kennedy] protected us. Lucasfilm protected us. Bob Iger protected us. The audience protected us. The Mandalorian protected us. We had all these people out there backing our play.“

Andor season 2 takes place “as the horizon of war draws near and Cassian becomes a key player in the Rebel Alliance. Everyone will be tested and, as the stakes rise, the betrayals, sacrifices and conflicting agendas will become profound.” As the new season takes us closer to the events of Rogue One, we will see the return of a few more characters from that film, including Ben Mendelsohn as Imperial Director Orson Krennic and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO. Some fans have even wondered if Peter Cushing could be digitally resurrected as Grand Moff Tarkin once again.

The second season of Andor will premiere on Disney+ on April 22nd.