Disney’s forthcoming Rogue One prequel TV series about rebel agent Cassian Andor has found a writer: Tony Gilroy, who will write the pilot and a handful of episodes, according to Variety.
The news brings a bit of continuity to the production of the series with Rogue One. The series is expected to debut on Disney + sometime in 2021, and will follow Andor (Diego Luna) and his robotic sidekick, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) as they work to build the Rebel Alliance ahead of the events of the standalone Star Wars film.
Gilroy is the latest figure involved in Rogue One to come over to the series: Luna and Tudyk will each reprise their original characters. Variety says that he’ll “work alongside” series showrunner Stephen Schiff (The Americans).
Rogue One famously had a rocky production. In June 2016, word broke that Lucasfilm and Disney weren’t happy with the initial cut of Rogue One, and ordered a major overhaul that included some rewriting and reshoots.
That’s where Gilroy comes in. Those reshoots went beyond a handful of scenes: the story was apparently “reconceptualized” with an eye towards building up some of the film’s characters. Gilroy handled the writing and direction for those reshoots, along with writer Chris Weiz.
Beyond his work for the Star Wars universe, Gilroy is best known for writing the Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum, and Bourne Legacy, as well as the George Clooney film Michael Clayton (the latter two of which he also directed).
Hopefully, his presence will help continue to flesh out the characters he brought to life in Rogue One, and that it means we’ll get a better idea of some of the trials and sacrifices that Andor had to endure in the name of the Rebel Alliance.
