Six years ago, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, took audiences on an exhilarating thrill ride through the turbulent mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. In addition to introducing an impressive new slate of characters like Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), and Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), it also featured an ensemble cast of minor characters that left a memorable impression on fans of the franchise. One of these characters, a Sergeant by the name of Ruescott Melshi (Duncan Pow), was recently re-introduced in Tony Gilroy's critically acclaimed series Andor, and Collider has the details about how he was integrated back into the story so flawlessly.
Set about five years prior to the events of Rogue One, Andor has the unique opportunity to completely recontextualize the characters first introduced in the film by showcasing parts of their own origin stories, parallel to Cassian Andor's own journey into the rebellion. In Episode 8, "Narkina 5," Cassian is hauled off to an Imperial factory facility, without actually committing any crimes that the Empire is aware of (yet), which is where he meets Melshi for the first time. Similarly incarcerated and forced to labor under the Empire's authoritarian rule, Melshi is completely pessimistic about the prospects of ever leaving Narkina 5. Giving Cassian and Melshi this shared, and horrific, experience only adds to their later camaraderie and scenes in Rogue One. But with so many opportunities for their paths to cross in the series, what led to them choosing the prison as their introduction to each other?
Ahead of Episode 10, Collider had the opportunity to chat with Andor's executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg, and Beau Willimon, one of the series' insanely talented writers. With so much of the conversation centering on the trio of episodes that Willimon penned for the Narkina 5 arc, naturally, Melshi came up. Wohlenberg shared that the idea of Melshi returning was something that first came to Gilroy. Willimon went on to explain that, "I remember Tony talking about how much he enjoyed working with that actor and was looking for an opportunity to bring Melshi back but didn't know where necessarily."
Wohlenberg also explained that they had a whiteboard in the writer's room back in 2019 where Willimon had taken some of Gilroy's ideas and written out, “Let's bear these people in mind and how can we feed them through?” When it came to the prison, she shared that it seemed "the obvious place of how can we feed some people back and really expand the world that you know [...] Finding the prison really was just the ideal place for those people to connect." In addition to the prison being a natural place for Cassian to run into Melshi, Willimon also shared another reason for why the character was brought back for Andor, saying, "I remember Tony talking about how much he enjoyed working with that actor and was looking for an opportunity to bring Melshi back but didn't know where necessarily. So we kind of had him on the back burner."
How They Avoided "Fan Service"
Andor has done a really exceptional job with naturally working characters into its plot, without ever overusing them or turning them into frustrating cameos. Willimon explained that this was an intentional aspect of their planning process. He explained:
"We never want to do it from a place of just pandering, or let's just, "Hey, ma. Look what I can do?" It had to meet a very high bar. Only if it felt necessary and organic, and we could push the story forward in a way that wasn't just plot-driven, but that would touch you emotionally. The idea, we got chills I remember when we all... I don't remember who said it out loud first, but what if Melshi's in that prison? And it's like, "Oh, my god."
Ultimately, Melshi's return was all up to Gilroy. As Wohlenberg said, "Tony is always the first kernel, and then others get added. It really is that tiny writer's room and Tony's very invaluable collaborators in Beau and Dan that really allow that, or a kind of fast and furious and very intense way to branch out. Then it's something for them all to take away and then really do the deep dive when it comes to actually now translating it into scripts. That's how the really hard work starts."
Andor is streaming now Disney+. While you wait for the next episode, check out our interview with Andy Serkis about his character down below: