The first half of Andor was primarily devoted to planning a heist, but the past month or so has seen the show shift focus to Cassian plotting his escape from an Imperial prison. Narkina 5 has certainly generated a lot of discussion among fans, with the biggest question being what all those prisoners were actually building for the Empire.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter (via SFFGazette.com), showrunner Tony Gilroy dropped some hints about what's really going on in those factories spread out across the planet.
"It’s the spine of season two. I’ve heard all kinds of things; it’s great. All of the material that the Empire has, I look at everything like, 'Economically, how does this work? Who built Scarif? How do you build that? How do you build Eadu? How do you build The Death Star and this armada of ships?'"
"There’s a lot of things that need to be built, and there’s an incredible amount of material," he continues. "So, to me, what they’re building is not as important as the scale of it."
"When you go to the Imperial Bureau of Standards where Syril works, you go, 'Oh my God,' and he’s just working at the Fuel Purity desk. But that’s what it takes to run this Empire. So the scale of it is really what we’re trying to suggest here."
Reading between the lines here, it sounds like Cassian may have been contributing just a small piece to a much larger Imperial operation, and we wouldn't be remotely surprised if those parts are being used to construct the Death Star. If so, that would make the Rebel's mission in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story even more personal and poignant.
The trade also asked Gilroy about the fate of Andy Serkis' Kino Loy after his admission that he couldn't swim during the big escape. They specifically wondered if the character ended up being executed shortly after leading that breakout to which the showrunner responded, "I don’t know. He’s not dead. Is he dead? I don’t see him dying [in episode ten]."
Something tells us we might just see Loy again when season 2 of Andor rolls around. In the meantime, the season 1 finale will arrive on Disney+ next Wednesday, so stay tuned to SFFGazette.com for updates.