Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy explains why iconic Star Wars villains Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine will not appear during Season 2. On the heels of Andor‘s second and final season debuting on Disney+ earlier this month, Gilroy spoke with Rolling Stone to discuss his work on the acclaimed series. One of the topics brought up was the absence of the two Sith Lords. After neither was in the first season, audiences shouldn’t expect to see them return as Andor wraps up its run. Gilroy shed light on why he opted to not include these two familiar faces.
“No, that was never on my agenda,” Gilroy said in regard to Darth Vader. “Writing for Darth Vader is really limiting. I’ve done it. He doesn’t have a lot to say.”
Gilroy then explained his decision on Palpatine. “He was too big a piece of meat for me to introduce,” he said. “It was too heavy a lift. I thought about it at one point, but it was too heavy a lift.”
[RELATED – Andor Season 2 Takes Star Wars to the Darkest Place It’s Ever Gone Before (And Earns It)]
Dating back to its first season, Andor has been seen as a refreshing change of pace for the Star Wars franchise because it does not rely heavily on nostalgic callbacks to earlier movies and TV shows. Gilroy recently shared that Disney and Lucasfilm did not give the Andor creative team any mandates about characters they had to include. At one point, Gilroy wanted to include some Rebel Alliance figures at Yavin IV, but that didn’t pan out due to scheduling issues with actors.
Arguably Vader’s most famous appearance in a Disney-era Star Wars project was Rogue One, the spinoff movie Gilroy was involved with. Vader has a pair of memorable scenes in the film: his conversation with Krennic on Mustafar and the hallway massacre at the end of the movie. Palpatine is only mentioned in Rogue One.
As exciting as it would be to see Vader or Palpatine on screen again, Gilroy’s approach makes a lot of sense. Considering the story he’s trying to tell with Andor, it isn’t necessary to find a spot for these prominent figures. If these infamous Sith were brought back into the fold, it would be distracting from the narrative and the other characters that have been so well-established over the course of Andor‘s run. Vader and Palpatine have obviously had sizable parts in the films and other areas of Star Wars canon (including Vader’s role in Obi-Wan Kenobi). Andor is an opportunity to spotlight different characters like Dedra Meero, Syril Karn, or even Director Krennic, fleshing them out and using them as an outlet to explore the Empire’s tyranny in ways that haven’t been done before. Vader and Palpatine would run the risk of being a case of “been there, done that.”
It’s interesting that Gilroy is this upfront about Vader and Palpatine not being in Andor so early into Season 2’s run. There are still nine episodes to go, and Lucasfilm is renowned for its levels of secrecy to preserve surprises. Gilroy easily could have played coy about the Sith Lords, but it might be for the best he confirmed they won’t appear. Now fans know and can adjust their expectations for the rest of the season accordingly. If anything, Star Wars fans might be relieved by this development, as they know Andor will spend the rest of its episodes focusing exclusively on the compelling drama and captivating characters audiences have been invested in from the jump.
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