The Writers Guild of America official website revealed a partial list of writers for Andor, the upcoming live-action Rogue One series spinoff. According to the list, Rogue One’s co-writer Tony Gilroy wrote at least three episodes for the upcoming series, with his brother Dan Gilroy penning three others, and Stephen Cliff signing at least one episode.
Starring Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, the series will explore how the Rebellion rose from the shadows of the Empire, setting the events that lead to Rogue One and the original Star Wars trilogy into motion. Set five years prior to Rogue One, the series will follow Cassian as he goes on a journey that will turn him from a selfish man to one of the biggest leaders of the Rebellion, and the leader of the squadron that stole the plans for the Death Star. After the success of Rogue One, Tony Gilroy was already confirmed to come back as producer and showrunner for Andor. However, as the new writers' list reveals, he also wrote the first three episodes of the series, setting the tone for the whole season.
According to the newly released list, Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler, Kong: Skull Island) wrote Episodes 4 to 6. Cliff (The Americans), is listed as the writer of Episode 7. The list should be updated in the coming weeks, as the first season of Andor is expected to have twelve episodes. Also, as revealed during the Star Wars Celebration, Disney is confident of the series' success, as the cast and crew of Andor are already expected to start shooting another 12 episodes this year.
While Andor focuses on the titular character’s journey and his ascension in the Rebellion’s ranks, the first trailer for the series underlines how the story will fill the gaps between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. As showrunner Tony Gilroy revealed:
"We're going back five years into the story when I would say that hope is a very, very fragile flickering flame and people are trying to hang on to it, but it's not looking good."
In addition to Luna, the series will also see the return of Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma and Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. Newcomers to the series include Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, and Robert Emms. Gilroy was brought on as the showrunner for Andor, following Stephen Schiff's departure prior to the production beginning. Black Mirror director Toby Haynes reportedly directed the pilot episode, as well as two other episodes, along with Ben Caron and Susanna White who were announced as directors for the 12-episode season.
Andor premieres with two episodes on Disney+ on August 31. After that, new episodes will be released weekly.