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Star Wars' Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy avoided the series set because he thought people were scared of him like Darth Vader
Tony Gilroy jokes that his presence “creeped everybody out” when he would visit the Star Wars: Andor set
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You know the way Darth Vader’s subordinates tense up when he’s around? It turns out the crew on Star Wars: Andor did the same thing on the rare occasion when Tony Gilroy came to set.
Don’t get me wrong, Gilroy is a much better person to work for than Vader. By all accounts, Gilroy was a pleasure to work for, and he doesn’t choke his underlings like Vader does. Still, there’s always that feeling of nervousness that you get when your boss is nearby.
“I never went to set,” Gilroy admits during a panel at PaleyFest 2025. “I went to set, it creeped everybody out. Everybody starts looking over their shoulder. The director looks and goes ‘Oh, he directed a couple of movies. He had a good movie he directed.’ It was warping.”
Andor season one was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, so Gilroy did most of his showrunning duties remotely. The cast and crew spent hundreds of hours with him on video conference calls, but rarely saw him in person.
“I remember Ben Caron, one of our directors in season one,” Andor producer Sanne Wohlenberg recalls. “The first time he met Tony in person, we had only ever seen him in the same room with the same pictures in the background sitting down. And he met him for the first time on his last day of filming.”
“We spent hundreds of hours in conversation,” Gilroy adds. “It was extraordinary. We all didn’t see you in person for over a year,” Wohlenberg replies.
Andor season two is currently streaming on Disney+.
Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.
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