Interview: Diego Luna Compares ‘Andor’ to the “World We Live In”

Star Wars returns to the dawn of the Rebellion to explore Cassian Andor’s role as the hardened revolutionary in the new Disney+ show, Andor.

Diego Luna discussed his time exploring and stepping back into the role of Cassian Andor to fill in the blanks about his upbringing to his time stealing the Death Star plans on Scarif.

“Rogue One is a film about an event,” Diego Luna says. “You don’t get to know those characters. You don’t get to understand exactly where they come from, what needed to happen. And for me, it’s quite relevant today to tell the story of what needs to happen for a revolutionary to emerge, to exist, to come to life. What gives meaning in the life of someone to be willing to sacrifice everything for a cause?  What needs to happen? That journey matters to me. And the character says stuff that haunts me in Rogue One. That he started to fight since he was six years old.  What does that mean, exactly?  Why [would] a six-year-old miss his childhood and start a fight?”

From the moment we meet Cassian in Rogue One, he has no problem protecting himself and the Rebellion by killing his informant and not questioning his next target. It takes a dark past to create a person like this. Cassian was willing to give his life to take down what the Empire had built out of fear and terror.

“He talks about a dark past,” Luna continues. “He talks about doing terrible stuff for the Rebellion. What is he referring to? I think that story matters. That story is interesting. And there is a lot of material there for us to play. So I was really excited to be able to go into that journey and give those answers.”

Diego, what did you want to explore the most about Cassian and his past?

“How far can someone be from learning he could be a tool of change?” Luna says. “How far can you be from that and still find your way into acknowledging that you are capable of big stuff? It was like, ‘how far can we find Cassian?’ You see the guy in the first episode, and you don’t see any possibility of that happening. That, to me, gives me hope in the world we live in. If that’s possible, anyone can do something.”

When you think of the world we live in now, we see the hurt and the pain that has brought a new age revolution to light. Andor offers a glimpse at the people who decided that they wouldn’t sit back idly but instead gathered together to create a large community of people that wanted to be free from oppression and inequality.

“I always thought of him as a character that has been forced to move; therefore, he brings a pain that he’s carrying that is making him very cynical about life,” Luna says. “And exploring that person and then finding a way to get the clarity of someone that suddenly starts believing, that goes through a process of acknowledging that articulating something in community can give you enough strength to be useful and to bring change. I thought that story matters so much. It’s a story I would like to tell to my kids, to my friends.”

“We have to be so real because it doesn’t matter, and we pretend to be in a galaxy far, far away,” Diego Luna says. “This story matters today in the world we live in.”

In what way do you hope that Andor will stand out from the other Star Wars shows that are currently available?

“It’s very dark times in the galaxy, there [are] no Jedis around, these people having to articulate a reaction to oppression, and it’s the most grounded kind of Star Wars you’ll get,” Luna says. “It is a show about us; it is a show about these people finding the strength to come up with a reaction, to change and bring change to their reality. It’s very inspiring, It’s adventure and action at its best. What you expect from Star Wars, but then it goes very intimate, and it’s very subtle, and it takes time to understand each character, and it has time for each storyline. I just think it’s very rich, it’s powerful, and people are gonna like it, hopefully.”

“‘Andor’ is an homage to that beginning of Star Wars and tells a story about regular people, and what they can actually do to bring about change. It’s when science fiction connects directly with reality and makes the comments that have to be made.”

The Andor series explores a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It is an era filled with danger, deception, and intrigue where Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.

Debuts on Disney+ September 21, 2022.