An Overwhelming Reception

Host Anthony Carboni welcomes executive producer Tony Gilroy and star Diego Luna to the Star Wars Celebration LIVE! stage. The crowd erupts into massive, sustained cheers, prompting Luna to marvel at the energy. Gilroy admits that seeing this kind of reception is “every writer’s dream,” noting that it simply does not happen often [02:30]. Luna expresses deep gratitude for the fans, explaining that the cast and crew work incredibly hard and that this energy needs to spread back to the set. “Everyone doing our Andor has to know that you guys care so much about what we do,” Luna says [04:07].

A Regular Guy in Horrible Circumstances

Carboni asks Luna how he handles the complexity of playing Cassian in Andor, a completely different man than the one fans met in Rogue One. Luna explains that at the beginning of the first season, Cassian is just a regular guy trying to survive in a difficult world [05:30]. Reflecting on the intense scene where Cassian chooses to pull the trigger, Luna praises Gilroy’s writing. He notes that the audience is not judging Cassian from the outside, but is fully with him in that desperate moment. “It’s a very dramatic but it’s also very realistic,” Luna explains, highlighting that the show is about real people with flaws and contradictions rather than simple heroes and villains [07:18].

The Humanity of the Empire

Carboni turns to Gilroy, asking what he wanted audiences to understand deeply about both the Empire and the Republic. Gilroy emphasizes his desire to engage the audience emotionally and make the world feel entirely real [08:23]. He explains that there is no clean division of heroes and villains in real life. While the Empire is evil at its core for an evil purpose, the practitioners making it happen are just ordinary people. “Sometimes you’re making your purchase orders, sometimes you’re putting the next piece of the Death Star on the conveyor belt,” Gilroy says. “I want you to live inside all of these people and that’s what I care about” [09:36].

Building His Own Demise

Carboni seizes on the mention of the Death Star conveyor belt, asking how the team came up with the idea that Cassian was literally building the weapon that would ultimately kill him [09:57]. Gilroy recalls a short five day writer’s room where they decided they wanted a prison arc, but only if they could do something spectacular and fresh. Once someone suggested electric floors, the behavioral prison concept emerged. They then had to figure out what the prisoners were actually building, realizing it was like “building a watch” [10:56].

Expanding the Business of Revolution

Looking ahead to the highly anticipated second season, Carboni asks what fans can expect [19:11]. Gilroy compares the growing Rebellion to a small coffee shop or a startup company that is suddenly expanding. “If your stock and trade of your business is paranoia and secrecy and betrayal and heavy consequences, expanding your business is really difficult,” he explains [20:06]. He promises that fans will see the wear and tear, heartbreak, and triumph of the characters as they stumble forward into a complicated bit of chaos.

A Message to the Investors

Before concluding, Gilroy takes a quiet moment to sincerely address the fans. He tells the crowd that they are essentially investors in the show. “It’s your passionate insane loyalty that gave Disney the guts to gamble on something like this,” Gilroy declares. “If we don’t have you, we can’t play this hard” [21:51]. Luna then interrupts the sign off to send a heartfelt message in Spanish to all the fans watching in Latin America, capping off an emotional and insightful panel [23:01].