Tony Gilroy Reveals Why That 'Andor' Character Was Recast in Season 2 -

Editor’s Note: The article below contains spoilers for Andor Season 2, Episode 6.Andor has delivered some iconic original characters as well as returning fan-favorites from Rogue One and Star Wars as a whole, but in the most recent drop of episodes, one familiar face was replaced with a new actor. Benjamin Bratt was cast in Season 2 of the hit Disney+ series to take on the role of Bail Organa, originally played by Jimmy Smits in the prequel trilogy. Smits reprised his role as Bail in both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Rogue One, but he wasn’t able to return to the role for Andor, and creator Tony Gilroy explained to Collider’s Maggie Lovitt how Bratt’s casting came to be.

Lovitt asked Gilroy what the reasoning behind replacing Smits with Bratt was and shared her own love for the recast, saying she thought that Bratt was a “perfect pick for Bail.” Gilroy explained that bringing a legacy character into something is always a “complicated process.” But Gilroy also shared that it wasn’t from a lack of trying to get Smits back for the role; the timing of it all just wasn’t working out for Season 2. He explained:

“Bringing back the legacy characters is always a complicated process between money and scheduling and territory and everything else. Obviously, in a perfect world, he would come back. They just couldn’t put it together. He was doing a television series that was peaking at that point in time, and it just couldn’t work out. Finally, we have to have him because we have to. You have to have him. Ben was such a brilliant get as a replacement.”

Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma in Andor Season 2 — Image via Disney+

The franchise as a whole uses a mix of recasting and de-aging to bring back legacy characters. In The Mandalorian, we saw a de-aged Mark Hamill; we’ve seen a de-aged Hayden Christensen in Ahsoka, and Rogue One used a mix of recasting for some characters and de-aging for others, like Carrie Fisher‘s Princess Leia. The film gave Genevieve O’Reilly the chance to play Mon Mothma after her scene in Revenge of the Sith was cut. So, allowing the role of Bail Organa to be recast and to show that another actor can play these roles is a good thing.

The moment we saw in this week’s batch of episodes with Bail was brief, but it sets the tone for the future of Star Wars as a whole. You can see Bratt as Bail Organa in Andor Season 2.