With Andor Season 2 now in full swing, creator Tony Gilroy has revealed why Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine do not appear on-screen at any point in the series.
Andor leads directly into the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which does feature Darth Vader. The end of Rogue One, where Vader assaults the Rebel command ship while on the hunt for the Death Star schematics, in turn leads directly into the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
So, Vader is operating during the events of Andor, but he does not show up. Why? In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gilroy said a Vader cameo was never on the cards, because sci-fi’s greatest villain “doesn’t have a lot to say.”
“No, that was never on my agenda,” Gilroy explained. “Writing for Darth Vader is really limiting. I’ve done it. He doesn’t have a lot to say.”
That is, of course, a nod to Vader’s appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gilroy co-wrote the screenplay). In the movie, Vader says just a handful of lines of dialogue to Orson Krennic, who he eventually Force chokes into submission. Vader does not say a word during his signature corridor scene at the end of the film.
So that’s Darth Vader’s absence explained, but what about The Emperor? Again, he’s operating during the events of Andor, and is referenced, but does not appear on-screen.
“He was too big a piece of meat for me to introduce,” Gilroy explained. “It was too heavy a lift. I thought about it at one point, but it was too heavy a lift.”
Gilroy went on to make the point that in the Star Wars universe, during the events of Andor at least, hardly anyone knows about the Jedi or the Sith. The Emperor is referenced, but more like an off-screen politician or president. And so, the likes of the Emperor and Darth Vader in full on Sith mode are “not in the culture.”
“One of the fascinating things that I realized when I started the show in the very beginning is how many billions of beings are in the galaxy,” Gilroy said.
“Nobody knows about the Jedi, nobody knows about the Sith. It’s just a tiny percentage of people that have any notion of it at all. It’s not in the culture. And I remember being really surprised as it was explained. I thought it was something that everyone knew about, but no, it’s very secretive and small.”
Even without such heavy-hitters, Andor has proven a crowd pleaser. In fact, Season 2 has officially made Andor the most critically acclaimed live-action Star Wars film or TV show ever, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
IGN’s own review for the first three episodes of Andor Season 2 gave the show an excellent 8/10, highlighting that Andor “continues to be the most interesting Star Wars has been in years.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
