Andor Showrunner Tony Gilroy's Favorite Season Might Surprise You

When it comes to measuring different seasons of a given show, certain ones are easier to rank than others. The series finale of "Stranger Things," for example, might not leave many fans scrambling to place season 5 at the very top of their lists. But how about having to name a favorite season of "Andor," the acclaimed and ambitious "Star Wars" production that came to a triumphant end in 2025? Your choices come down to the batch of episodes that gave us Luthen Rael's (Stellan Skarsgård) "sunless space" monologue, and Diego Luna's Cassian Andor inciting a prison riot in "One Way Out," versus the heartbreaking Ghorman Massacre or Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) delivering the antifascist speech of a lifetime. Don't ask us "Andor" obsessives to pick between our kids!

You know who that's not a problem for? None other than "Andor" creator/showrunner/writer Tony Gilroy, incredibly enough. 2026 may have arrived, but the man who helped reinvent "Star Wars" is still basking in last year's monumental achievement — and rightfully so. In an extended interview with Total Film, Gilroy was asked for his thoughts on the series now that it's firmly in the rearview mirror. He didn't even hesitate to single out which season he's most proud of:

"To me, the second season is more exciting because of the compression that it was under and the way we had to do it. It's really hard to tell people who aren't writers how exciting it is to work on something in that structure, where we have all that negative space, not having to dump a basket of exposition on the table, and the challenge of that — really exciting. I would not have wanted to miss that experience. So, I'm very pleased with what we did. It's absolutely intentional."

That's spoken like a creative talent with absolutely zero interest in second-guessing himself about how he brought things to a sweeping but satisfying conclusion with "Andor." As many fans are well aware of, Tony Gilroy originally envisioned a five-season plan for this prequel series before realizing he needed to change his approach entirely — a gutsy decision that resulted in the unusual time-jump structure taking place every few episodes in season 2. Even the biggest skeptics would have to agree that this turned out to be a resounding success, helping bridge the years-long gap between "Andor" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" in a compressed television schedule, and Gilroy himself readily agrees. While speaking to Total Film, the showrunner expressed no regrets about sticking with his two-season adjustment:

"I wouldn't tell the story any differently at all. If we were working on season 1 and I was 35 and Diego was 35 and we had unlimited time, and if Disney had the money, and someone said, 'Geez, can you do it in four [seasons]?' You'd build a frame for four [seasons] that would work. And you'd love that. But this was so very much designed and intentional by the time we went into it to be exactly what it was."

Man, may we all develop the same sense of zen. It's a reality of the industry that certain elements would be lost along the way, like that horror-infused K-2SO episode which wasn't to be or even a possible Emperor Palpatine cameo. As much as we may daydream about what five full seasons of "Andor" could've looked like, Gilroy clearly isn't losing sleep over it. Either way, two brilliant seasons are certainly better than none.