Tony Gilroy talks about the significance of Andor, Dave Filoni and the future of Lucasfilm in a new interview
Feb 23, 2026
Nobody does interviews like Tony Gilroy. Anyone who's followed the press tour and awards campaign forAndorover the past year knows that few filmmakers answer questions as deeply and eloquently as Gilroy. Now that the hype around the hit Star Wars series has died down, Gilroy sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and spoke at length about the series' political significance, rumors that Dave Filoni doesn't like Andor, the future of Lucasfilm, and much more.
The plot of Andor takes place in the real world.
The key theme of a new interview with THR is how muchAndor resonates with troubling events in contemporary American politics. “You pull out your Fascism for Dummies book and list 15 things you need to accomplish, and we tried to incorporate as many of them into Andor in the most artful way possible,” Gilroy said. "How could we have known that this clown circus in Washington would be using essentially the same book as us?So I think it's less foreshadowing than it is a sad recognition of fascism and the karaoke menu of what you have to go through to make it happen."
In an interview, Gilroy does not mince words when criticizing the Trump administration: “They have an incredible appetite. They have an incredible local strategy, but they lack the ability to create a narrative. They don't have [Joseph] Goebbels or Mike Deever. They don't have a presentation. They don't have Leni Riefenstahl. They have no way to convey their message in a narrative form. They are terrible at this and will never learn.”
Gilroy believes that the administration's main goal is to completely cancel the election. "So I don't think they'll succeed, but I think the end goal has always been to completely overturn the election and have a complete power grab," Gilroy said.“I don’t see any other plausible scenario for them.”
One of the key moments of the second season was the Gorman massacre, which was the result of elaborate Imperial manipulation and the spread of disinformation. In an interview, Gilroy compared Gorman to Greenland. “Gorman is Greenland,” Gilroy noted. “Gorman is anything.” “We need rare earth, we need this.” This is just a rough list of their actions, and my previous answer is relevant because it rhymes with the series."
"Disappointment is too strong a word" to describe Gilroy's feelings about joining Lucasfilm.
With Kathleen Kennedy's departure from Lucasfilm, some have expressed concerns that the studio will be more cautious about taking on risky projects. However, Gilroy doesn't seem to be disappointed with the direction Lucasfilm is heading.
“Disappointment is too strong a word,” Gilroy said. - How would I feel? Don't know. I'm not an investor. I don't have that responsibility. I don't have this briefcase on my desk. I don’t know how I would behave if my skin was at stake and some amount of money was involved. The problem is that there is no cheap way to make such series [or films]. Right now I'm watching the Game of Thrones spin-off, which is more subdued and simple [A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms]. It is very refreshing in its simplicity and unpretentiousness.”
Gilroy's approach if he were heading Lucasfilm? Act decisively.
Gilroy suggested that if he were head of Lucasfilm, he would commission more risky and creative projects.
“If I had to do this job, I would prefer to fight to the last.I'd rather burn in fire. My life, although not high risk, is high risk, so I would like to risk everything. Safety has never been one of my main principles. But disappointment? I don't care what they do. I wish them good luck. Honestly.”
Did Dave Filoni really dislike Andor?
“No,” Gilroy said. “We've only met a couple of times, and we've only had half a dozen conversations in the last ten years.” Seriously. I once saw Jon Favreau at a writing session. We always got along well with these guys, and always spoke only of them with praise. Our show exists only because of them, and we have always said that this is true. There is Andor without The Mandalorian.It wouldn’t exist. Thereforeour relationship has always been extremely friendly and pleasant, always, always, always, always.I don’t know anything that you don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know.”
"We are proud of this show"
Tony Gilroy did not hide his pride in creating the series Andor. “God, we are proud of this series,” the creator said. “This is our main conclusion. We were stunned [by his insight] for a while, but now we've really come to the conclusion that it's very sad.It's just sad how predictable, banal, obvious and wrong it all is. Fascism ultimately turns out to be a complete failure. He is devouring himself. So this will be an incredible waste of time, an incredible missed opportunity, and an incredibly dark period in American history from which it may never recover."
Gilroy also suggested that a show like Andor might never happen again.
“So I'm not sure if we'll ever see something like Andor - created live rather than by AI. Will anyone ever spend that kind of money again to create something live [streaming]? I don't know if it will ever happen again, but it's great that we did it. We got away with it and are very pleased with the result.”