Four different directors will have helmed the first season of Andor before the Disney+ streaming series wraps up in two weeks, and none of them will be back for Season 2. Showrunner Tony Gilroy has explained how difficult it was finding replacements.
"Well, not for lack of trying," Gilroy told Collider, regarding retaining Andor's first season's directors. "But I had too long of a conversation, and nothing nefarious or whatever, but it'll be all new directors this time around."
"It's very hard," Gilroy continued. "Man, hiring directors is a really hard thing to do. I never hired a director before. I mean, when you're hiring directors, it means you have to watch so many things."
Toby Haynes (Doctor Who, Sherlock) directed the show's first three and most recent three episodes. Susanna White also directed three installments, with Benjamin Caron coming on for one episode and is slated to direct the final two.
"It's also like Supermarket Sweep because there are all these other shows that are out there and everybody's going for the same people," Gilroy said. "Then you have to convince people, 'Oh my god, I don't want to come in on Season 2. You already did everything.' And you're like, 'No, we're doing the second half of a thing.' And there's all these conversations and stuff. But we will have three new directors this time."
"Ariel Kleiman is going to come in, and kind of do what Toby did last time," Gilroy added. "He's going to direct our first block and our last block. The way we go, you can only do the first block and the last block because there's too much. Wouldn't have time otherwise."
Kleiman directed the 2015 Australian film Partisan as well as an episode of Showtime's Yellowjackets.
"The first block we're shooting is not the first block chronologically," Gilroy said. "So he'll actually be directing the first six episodes in the end. And then Janus Metz [Pedersen] is coming in to direct a block, and then Alonso Ruizpalacios is coming in to do a block of three as well."
Pedersen is a Danish documentary filmmaker who also directed an episode of HBO's True Detective. Ruizpalacios is a Mexican film director.
"So we have three new directors that we're very excited about. There's an incredible amount of competition for directors right now."
Andor tells the story of thief-turned-Rebel-fighter Cassian Andor in the five years preceding the character's introduction in 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Season 2 is slated to time jump one year forward.
New episodes of Andor drop Wednesdays on Disney+.
Source: Collider