The last three episodes of Andor season 2 hit Disney+ yesterday evening, and while we already know how Cassian's story ends thanks to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the three-part finale still managed to pack one heck of a punch.
You can read our full breakdown here, but The Hollywood Reporter (via SFFGazette.com) caught up with showrunner Tony Gilroy to ask many of the burning questions you might have after finishing "Jedha, Kyber, Erso."
The filmmaker unpacks that shocking twist about Bix, Dedra Meero's final fate, and what became of Mon Mothma's daughter (while the Rebel Alliance leader's ex-husband was shown in Andor's closing moments, Leida was not).
Gilroy also explains why Andy Serkis didn't return as Kino Loy and reveals why he decided not to further explore what became of Cassian's missing sister. That remains one of the show's biggest unanswered questions and the Rebels' search for her just...ended.
You can read some excerpts from the interview below.
On the reveal that Bix has had Cassian's baby:
It does three things for me. I think it makes his sacrifice that much more bitter. And I think that for anybody who had any lingering doubts about Bix leaving in episode nine, it explains it for anybody who was hesitant about buying into that scene. And finally, ultimately, I was desperate to end on a hopeful note. 'Rebellions are built on hope' isn’t just a t-shirt; it’s a legit flame that a lot of people need to see. So hopefully I was ending on something that was upbeat, as it was important for me to do that.
On Dedra Meero being imprisoned in the same facility that Cassian was once trapped in:
Well, we knew she’s going down. I mean, the whole ISB is coming to an end. If you think about it, if that was the CIA or any intelligence bureau, with those kind of breaches and that kind of disaster happening simultaneously, it would be a cleaning of house. So she’s definitely going to go down. And then to have her on Narkina 3 or Narkina 9 or wherever she’s on...I mean, that was just too juicy to ignore.
On why Kino Loy didn't return and the lingering mystery surrounding Cassian's sister:
Andy dropped the mic, man. What am I going to do that’s going to be better than what we did? All it does is minimize that moment [where Loy reveals 'I can’t swim' after breaking out of the island prison]. I knew a lot of people were talking about whether we had a way of [bringing him back]. But I didn’t want to have that sort of coincidental environment.
[Kino Loy] is like [Cassian’s] sister [who he was trying to find in the series premiere]. People wanted to know if we’re going to resolve the sister. And the sister, in the beginning, is so much more interesting to me as a deficit. She’s much more valuable to me for Cassian as an absence. As he says in the end, 'Maybe I should stop saving people.' His need to return and save people and to be a savior and the compulsion to do that comes from this hole in his life, and I didn’t really didn’t want to fill that in.
On what become of Mon Mothma's daughter after she fled Coruscant:
[Laughs] So you’ve probably seen in your life at some point where a child becomes more orthodox — whatever the orthodoxy is — than the parents. The parents have broken free from the traditions of their parents, and then their children are like, “No, I want go back.” I think she’s living a very comfortable country club life on Chandrila. I don’t know how happy she’ll be, but that’s where she is.
On what Andor season 2's finale means for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story:
I mean, for all the people that thought the Cassian-Jyn Erso relationship was the be-all, end-all romance, like, my God, what does it do to that? So I haven’t [re]watched it [yet], but I probably will.
Andor season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.