With the hotly anticipated release of Jon Favreau’s upcoming Star Wars series ‘The Mandalorian’ fast approaching, Variety reports that acclaimed writer-director Tony Gilroy is set to write the pilot episode of the next live-action Star Wars series ‘Cassian Andor’ and direct several episodes as well.
Additionally, Gilroy will work alongside showrunner Stephen Schiff (‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,’ ‘The Americans’) for the series.
This announcement makes perfect sense, considering Gilroy’s significant involvement with the production of ‘Rogue One’ as one of its screenwriters and was later brought onboard to handle the film’s extensive reshoots and collaborated heavily with director Gareth Edwards afterward in supervising the editing process.
His familiarity with the ‘Rogue One’ cast aside, Gilroy wrote the Matt Damon-lead ‘The Bourne Identity,’ ‘The Bourne Supremacy,’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ in Universal’s franchise. He also wrote and directed both the Oscar-nominated 2007 thriller ‘Michael Clayton’ and the 2012 spin-off ‘The Bourne Legacy.’ Seeing as how the show has been teased to feel more like a ‘spy thriller’ in comparison to other Star Wars films and shows, Gilroy’s history with the genre bodes well for the quality of the show.
As its name implies, the upcoming series will focus on the past of its titular character (played once again by ‘Narcos: Mexico’s Diego Luna), before he met his death during the finale of 2016’s ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.’ Alan Tudyk (‘Doom Patrol,’ ‘Aladdin’) will also return to portray the fan-favorite K-2SO, Andor’s droid sidekick.
Meanwhile, filming will take place in London next year.
Although ‘Cassian Andor’ currently has no set release date, Disney has previously indicated that it will premiere on its Disney+ streaming service at some point during 2021.
Source: Variety