When it comes to measuring different seasons of a given show, some are easier to categorize than others. The series finale of “Stranger Things,” for example, may not leave many fans scrambling to put season 5 at the very top of their list. But how about having to name a favorite season of “Andor,” the acclaimed and ambitious “Star Wars” production that came to a triumphant end in 2025? Your choices come down to the batch of episodes that gave us Luthen Rael’s (Stellan Skarsgård) “sunless space” monologue, and Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor inciting a prison riot in “One Way Out,” against the heartbreaking Ghorman massacre, or Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) delivering the anti-fascist speech of her life. Don’t ask us “Andor” obsessives to choose between our children!
You know who it is not a problem for ? None other than “Andor” creator/showrunner/writer Tony Gilroy, incredibly enough. 2026 may be here, but the man who helped reinvent “Star Wars” is still basking in last year’s monumental achievement — and rightly so. In a lengthy interview with Total Film, Gilroy was asked his thoughts on the series now that it’s firmly in the rearview mirror. He didn’t even hesitate to name the season he is most proud of:
“For me, the second season is more exciting because of how compressed it was and how we had to do it. It’s really hard to tell people who aren’t writers how exciting it is to work on something in this structure, where we have all this negative space, without having to throw a basket of exposure on the table, and the challenge of that is really exciting. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that experience. So, I’m very happy with what we’ve done. This is absolutely intentional.”
Tony Gilroy doesn’t regret shortening Andor from five to two seasons.
This is spoken of as a creative talent who has absolutely no interest in second-guessing himself about how he brought things to a radical but satisfying conclusion with “Andor.” As many fans know, Tony Gilroy had initially considered a five-season plan for this prequel series before realizing he needed to completely change his approach — a bold move that resulted in an unusual time-jumping structure that occurs every few episodes in Season 2. Even the most skeptical would have to agree that it proved to be a resounding success, helping to bridge the years-long gap between “Andor” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” in a compressed television schedule, and Gilroy himself readily agrees. Speaking to Total Film, the showrunner expressed no regrets about sticking with his two-season adjustment:
“I wouldn’t tell the story any differently at all. If we were working on Season 1 and I was 35 and Diego was 35 and we had unlimited time, and Disney had money, and someone said, ‘Gee, can you do it in four?’ [seasons]?’ You would build a frame for four [seasons] it would work. And you would love it. But by the time we got into it, it was so designed and intentional that it was exactly what it was.”
Man, may we all develop the same sense of zen. It’s an industry reality that some elements would be lost along the way, like that horror-infused episode of K-2SO that wasn’t meant to be or even a possible cameo from Emperor Palpatine. While we can dream about what five full seasons of “Andor” might have been like, Gilroy clearly isn’t losing any sleep over it. Either way, two brilliant seasons are certainly better than nothing.
