Don’t Expect Andor to Show the Empire’s Two Evil Head Honchos

The final season of Andor will lead directly to Rogue One, and that’s had people talking about possible cameos to tie them together. If you’ve been hoping to see either Darth Vader or Palpatine in this show, you should look elsewhere.

In a recent Rolling Stone interview, creator Tony Gilroy was asked about why neither of the two villains pop up in the show. Stories set during the Original Trilogy typically get them involved: Vader famously appeared in Rogue One—which Gilroy co-wrote—and Sheev’s had TV appearances in Obi-Wan, Bad Batch, and Star Wars Rebels. Gilroy’s reason for not including either is that they ultimately don’t belong in the story: he described Vader as “really limiting, he doesn’t have a lot to say.” (That, and he got Vader out of his system back in Rogue One with the slasher-esque hallway scene.) It’s more or less the same answer with Sheev, who he called “too big a piece of meat to introduce. I thought about it at one point, but it was too heavy a lift.”

Despite neither appearing, Palpatine’s presence has been felt in Andor whenever characters mention him in conversation. (Krennic, a returning Imperial baddie from Rogue One, even teases his plans to build what’ll eventually be the Death Star in the premiere.) According to Gilroy, this is partially because the galaxy is full of billions, and to the majority of people, Palpatine is just a politician. “Nobody knows about the Jedi or Sith” is a thing Lucasfilm told him, and upon hearing this, it blew his mind. “It’s not in the culture, there’s just a tiny percentage of people that have any notion of it at all,” he said. “It’s very secretive and small.”

Keeping Vader and Sheev off to the sidelines may ultimately be for the best: the Jedi and Sith can sometimes suck all the air out of the room. With those factions gone, it’s let Andor shine some interesting lights on what the Rebels and Imperials are up to when they’re on and off the clock, which is arguably more worth digging into nowadays.

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