'Andor': a galaxy without buttons or the working side of Star Wars

In the first minutes of

, the series that premieres this Wednesday on Disney+ with three episodes, the main character, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), arrives at a brothel looking for a woman.

It's hard to match this starter to the cinematic universe created by George Lucas in

.

To viewers, the opening scenes sound more like

than the shared galaxy with Han Solo and Chewbacca.

That is the intention of the production of the new installment of the science fiction saga and that it is added to the television offer of the Disney brand together with

,

and

.

If the first has Baby Yoda as a magnet for viewers,

bets on a different tone to continue the galactic epic.

His narrative arc is his most powerful weapon.

“We have an obligation to be different.

The story is more complex, darker, overtly political, because it is about a revolution, about the reaction to a totalitarian system.

It's a political and spy

, it has a different tone," says Luna in an interview in Los Angeles.

andor

brews

an origin for the Rebel Alliance fighting the empire and stealing the plans for the Death Star.

The fateful outcome of this group is told in

.

The 2016 film was well received by fans of the brand and also by film critics.

It grossed over $1 billion at the global box office.

Its success was largely due to the almost last-minute arrival on the production of Tony Gilroy, an experienced filmmaker who has shown a special talent for action and complex characters.

He got a taste of it by writing the first Jason Bourne spy movies and also with his feature debut,

, a

in which George Clooney plays a second-rate lawyer who stands up to a large company.

In

he joined the production when there was already a finished director's cut, which did not work.

Gilroy turned the film into a film about sacrifice and won screenwriting credit after an arbitration process.

Tony Gilroy and Diego Luna talk during the filming of 'Andor', which took place in London during the pandemic. Des Willie (Des Willie / Lucasfilm Ltd.)

Gilroy then made no secret of his lack of interest in the world of Star Wars.

But the machinery of Hollywood prequels and

hits like a boomerang and has placed him at the forefront of this new project as creator and

.

He wrote and directed all three episodes that premiere this week.

His scripts also close the first season, in chapters eleven and twelve.

His obsession has been to make this fantasy world feel as real as possible.

production designers

, we hired Luke Hall, who did

.

We had to fight to be real.

In the entropy of cinema, everything leads to falsehood.

It's the easiest way, so it's hard to do the work to make it real," Gilroy explains in an interview.

In November, he will begin shooting the second and final season, which will span the four years leading up to the events of

.

Entrusted with making a fiction about rebels, it is not surprising that

has tested the rules of this universe without breaking them completely.

Diego Luna, in front of a plate of eggs rancheros in his hotel in Bel Air, explains that in this universe there are no buttons on the characters' clothes.

It's one of the unwritten rules of Star Wars production design.

"In this series, if you have a bag there has to be something inside, something that you are eventually going to use," explains the actor, one of the film's protagonists who has now repeated in the series alongside Genevieve O'Reilly (Mon Mothma ) and Forest Whitaker (Saw Gerrera).

They are joined by Puerto Rican Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen, Fiona Shaw (Maarva), Denise Gough (Dedra Meero) and Stellan Skarsgard, who plays Luthern Rael, an expert in espionage and counterintelligence who seems to be the great puppeteer of the rebellion.

In

there are 195 characters with dialogues.

Chekhov in the galaxy

Unlike most series in the Lucasfilm universe, which use an imposing set made up of LED walls created by Industrial Light and Magic and known in the industry as The Volume,

was shot on location outside of London, in the worst of the pandemic.

"I think I had never read so much on a set because nobody wanted to sit down and chat with me," says Luna about a shoot that had a very strict protocol to avoid outbreaks.

Production, however, was indirectly benefited by the English quarantine.

The break that closed the theaters in one of the performing capitals of the world released the agenda of actors and actresses with a lot of experience in theaters.

Among these are the Irish Gough, who won an award in 2016 for her leading role in the play

and Kyle Soller, an American who graduated from the prestigious British theater school RADA.

“Actors have to be reminded all the time that they've been hired for who they are.

They're not here to do Star Wars or to play a costume.

They are here to make Chekhov.

This is Ken Loach.

That is what you must do.

We take care of the rest, ”says Gilroy about the conversations he had with the cast.

The creator also devised a structure that allows writers and directors to imprint an author stamp on the series.

Each director takes charge of three consecutive episodes that have their own coherence as they advance the narrative arc of the characters.

Raymond Anum, Diego Luna and Ian Whyte, as Vetch, in one of the episodes of 'Andor'. Lucasfilm Ltd. (AP)

On the screen, you can see more of a working-class town in Sheffield than the dunes of some distant planet in another galaxy.

If Lucas's universe is full of intrigues between senators and sneaks into the power cupolas of a fantastic empire, Gilroy has put the birth of the revolution in the hands of lowly people.

Those of

are people who move in mechanical workshops, junk yards and garbage dumps.

The only thing that reminds you of watching Star Wars is that, from time to time, an alien appears among the workers.

At the Los Angeles premiere, members of the 501st Legion, the largest Star Wars fan club, arrived at the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Boulevard wearing the costumes that have made them famous.

Many of them have already left their youth behind, but their jovial spirit is carried with pride in their costumes as spaceship pilots, Jedis, Star Troopers or sexy Twilek warriors.

There were few who dressed as a character from Star Wars, although Diego Luna believes that this is the series for them: “Life has already passed over that audience.

They already have children, they already fell in love, they already broke their hearts.

Things like this happen to these characters.

It's cool to continue seeing the universe with which you've been involved, but with a story that can touch you."

And if they get bored, the Mexican actor won't take it personally.

his daughter,

.

“I am going to see this series with desire”, promised the little girl.

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