Well, you can make people look Old on screen … but perhaps it’s a little harder to do the reverse? According to Rolling Stone, Diego Luna originally signed onto a version of the Star Wars prequel Andor that would’ve taken 15 years to make. “It was just like, ‘We can’t possibly do this,’†showrunner Tony Gilroy recalled. “It’s a massive, massive undertaking, and Diego wouldn’t be able to play a younger man over the next 15 years. We wouldn’t be able to physically do it.†Forty-two-year-old Luna stars in the show as Cassian Andor, who will ostensibly be younger than the first time he appeared in Rogue One as a 26-year-old.
Lucasfilm reportedly planned for Andor to be five seasons long with each 12-episode season covering a year in the story. Without knowing exactly how much time that would take, Luna committed. (“I realized how much I missed this job and missed this character,†he told Rolling Stone.) Still, after shooting the Disney+ show’s fifth and six episodes, he and Gilroy had a heart-to-heart, realizing they had agreed to an impossible plan. Despite an initial sense of “desperation,†as Gilroy described it, “a very lucky, elegant solution presented itself.†Andor now has a Lucasfilm-approved acceleration in pacing. The initial five-season concept has been changed to a 24-episode limited series. The show’s first season is still scheduled to cover a year of time, but for the second season, a year will pass after every three episodes. The prequel to a prequel (to a prequel to the Star Wars prequel films) premieres September 21.