With Andor arriving on Disney+ September 21st, I recently got to speak with Adria Arjona (Bix Caleen) about making the newest Star Wars series. Andor is a two-season event that starts five years before the events of Rogue One. The first season will cover a year, while the second season will cover the next four years in 3-episode blocks. Meaning episodes one through three will be year two, episodes four through six is year three, seven though nine is year four, and the final episodes will be year five and the plan is to end episode twelve right before Rogue One starts.
During the interview, Arjona talked about her relationship with Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, how the series is the origin of the rebellion, what people would be surprised to learn about the making of Andor, how much showrunner Tony Gilroy told her about the series and her arc when she signed on, how you don’t have to have seen any Star Wars movies or series to watch the show, and more.
In addition to Arjona, Andor features the return of Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma and Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. Newcomers to the series include Stellan Skårsgard, Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, and Robert Emms. The 12-episode first season will feature episodes directed by Toby Haynes, Ben Caron, and Susanna White.
Watch what Adria Arjona had to say above, or you can read our conversation below.
COLLIDER: I want to start with how much I loved the first four episodes of Andor. I think my favorite part is that there's no Jedi lightsabers, desert planets called Tatooine. It's just an all new section of Star Wars. Can you talk about that aspect of the show?
ADRIA ARJONA: Yeah, it really is a true origin story of such a great character that we already know and love. And I think Tony did such a great job of creating these new worlds that are so intricate and so smart and interesting Ferrix for example, is a place where of everyone is sort of the same. You don't see hierarchies and economical disbalance is everyone's sort of a worker, and they all sort share things. And trade is very much of a trading system, and there's a community there that you feel it, and they're rituals and traditions that are very much from Ferrix.
What happens to a place like this when they're at a cusp of a revolution, what do you think that ignites? That's pretty epic and realizing where Cassian is truly from, and then getting to go to Ferrix and understanding where he lived most of his life. [It] is kind epic to see it and to understand it. It's so real. That's the one thing that really, I just keep saying that word over and over because it truly is so real. It's about people. It's ordinary people that have very little in common, but they sort of are bound together. It's sort of an imagery of who we are as a society. And it's pretty remarkable what Tony has created.
How would you describe your character and the relationship to Cassian?
ARJONA: Bix is someone that isn't afraid of getting her hands dirty. She's a risk-taker. She is bold and fearless, and she is a manager at a salvage yard. So has a pretty steady life and pretty, she has everything under control, and then here comes Cassian, and then it's of always happens. Their dynamic is one that I love deeply. So it was so fun to sort dig in and play around with it, their childhood friends. And you can sense that they have a history and their dynamic is complicated. You can almost tell that their trust has been built and broken and built and broken over the course of many, many years. Yet, she's incredibly caring and incredibly protective over him. Sometimes even at her own detriment
For Star Wars fans, what do you think they would be surprised to learn about the making of Andor?
ARJONA: They built an entire city for us, like an entire city. I got lost in it. I remember the first day that I walked on set, and I was in costume already, which was a coincidence. It just happened that was the day that they gave me the tour. I was at a costume fitting and I went over there, and I was mind blown. It was an entire outdoor city that exists. Ferrix exists. It's not in a studio. It's not parts of a set that we filmed in studio. It is very much a city. I keep saying three to five city blocks. I could be wrong. And I also could be maybe under, I'm not sure, I'm not good with distances.
One of the many reasons why I loved it is that it was clearly filmed on location, practical sets, everything just looked real. It just was very impressive.
ARJONA: Yeah. I had one scene where they were like, you got to run. And I was like, all, where do you want? And the directors where do you want? Cause they could point the camera pretty much everywhere. I was going in one specific direction because Ferrix does have a very specific geographical map. But either in this particular place that I was both ways would leave me to the same place. So it was like, wherever you want. And that was really cool. I'm like, “Oh, so you can point the camera everywhere.”
When you signed on how much did Tony Gilroy tell you about the full arc of your character? What you'd be involved with or was it sort of just like, oh Tony Gilroy? Star Wars? I'm going to do this.
ARJONA: No, no, no. Tony was very much in communication before. I mean COVID sort of happened, so the whole industry sort of shut down, and we were still talking. Tony is a true gentleman, [a] gentlemanly like creator, where he is very much involved, I think, with his actors, and is very open to conversations, and is constantly telling me what her journey was going to be like, "And, oh, I changed this a little bit." He really kept me in the loop even before the scripts were done. And the second that he had a script out, we all got it first, and even now with the second part [he] already told me what's going to happen.
That doesn't, that's not usual. He just really wants you to get in that mindset and start preparing your gears to embark on this new journey. He wants you to think on your own and think as big. So I could then have my own ideas and opinions. I would never give an opinion on his writing because why would I? I would make it worse, man, but it gives you the option. That is what is so respectable of him. I am in awe of that man.
Were you a big Star Wars fan before you were cast? And I have to know once you were cast, was it sort of like homework that you needed to rewatch all the Star Wars movies.
ARJONA: It really was. I was a fan. I had watched the movies sort of sporadically and of out of order, and I was a fan, but wasn't educated on the world itself. I'll be honest with you. And then when I got the job, I was like, I need to do my homework or was to be honest, pretty nervous about what I was about to join and what I was about to embark [on]. So I watched them all chronologically. I also needed to understand a place and time and a place in history where I was, because I think Bix would know that. It was important for me, for her to feel smart, and to even though I don't necessarily have to talk about it, but I wanted her to know that. So that was a must for me.
But I think the cool part about this show is that you don't have to be a Star Wars fan, and you don't have to have watched any of the movies to enjoy this show. That's kind of the honest truth. I think this show really stands on its own. I think the reason why I say that and the reason why I love that is because it'll be great for Star Wars fans, but it also will be a great show for people that aren't necessarily so into Star Wars. And hopefully, we can drag more people into this wonderful galaxy that we all love.
Andor premieres September 21st on Disney+ with the first three episodes.