Tony Gilroy Purposefully Avoided ‘Andor’ Cameos From Jyn Erso, Other ‘Rogue One’ Characters: “If People Didn’t Absolutely Have To Be There, They Shouldn’t”
In a testament to just how different Andor is from the usual Disney Star Wars slop, series creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy has revealed that despite Cassian’s story being a prequel to, Rogue One, he never considered the possibility of forcing a Jyn Erso cameo into its narrative.
Gilroy, who also co-wrote Rogue One and oversaw significant portions of its additional photography and editing, spoke to his disinterest in getting Felicity Jones to reprise her role as the Rebel scout while speaking to Entertainment Weekly‘s Dalton Ross following the series’ finale.
Asked directly if he had ever considered a last-minute Andor appearance from Jyn, the showrunner plainly asserted, “No.”
“I was asked that several times,” he added. “I tried to sketch some versions along the way of what we would do. Episode 12 [of Andor] is very unique. It’s its own energy and we are not trying to hype anything in 12. We always knew it was going to be not a low energy, but a different kind of episode.”
“I couldn’t think of a way to get anything else from Rogue One, really,” Gilroy admitted.
Turning to how the series finale does make reference to Cassian’s upcoming meeting with the informant Tivic, which ultimately plays out in the opening moments of Rogue One, Gilroy told his host, “I always thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to have to deal with Tivic the spy!'”
“[Then I asked] Should I deal with Galen Erso [as portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen]? And was there anybody else? I really thought I was going to have to use Danny Mays as Tivic. I thought, ‘Well, we probably should.'”
However, rather than distract from Andor‘s core narrative by attempting to stuff its finale with memberberries, Gilroy noted that he ultimately erred against having cheap cameos from any Rogue One who hadn’t already appeared in the series.
“In the end, I realized if people didn’t absolutely have to be there, they shouldn’t,” he explained. “And it would’ve been lame to bring Jyn back as a cameo. That would’ve been really disrespectful in a way. I’d rather honor Rogue and keep it straight.”
As such, rather than a ‘wink and nod’ regarding Cassian’s eventual team-up with Jyn, the series instead ends as Gilroy promised to Fandom.com all the way back in November 2022:
“It’s no secret, I’ve said it a million times, the last episode of our show, we’ll walk [Cassian] across the tarmac into the ship on his way to the Ring of Kafrene to go begin [Rogue One]. So we’re going to have to be there, we’re gonna have to be in Yavin and we’re going to have to tie that in. We’re going to have to send him there with the few bits of breadcrumbs and evidence that make the trip worthwhile and make a risky thing like that worth it to the Rebel Alliance.”
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