Dan Gilroy has spent decades mastering the art of character-driven storytelling, from his gritty noir thriller Nightcrawler to his work on Andor, the Star Wars series that has redefined what science fiction television can accomplish. 

Gilroy wrote the three-episode arc that includes the Ghorman massacre and Mon Mothma’s (Genevieve O’Reilly) dramatic escape from the Senate. The episodes are standouts in a magnificent season of rich, complex TV. 

As someone who has loved Star Wars since infancy, Andor feels like a miracle to me. It’s adult, dark, and grounded writing that deals with complicated people in impossible situations, making for some of the realest, most complicated Star Wars adventures in the franchise. Little 1999 me could have never imagined she’d get the chance to dissect some of her favorite intergalactic moments with its writers, but here we are.

And I learned a ton from our conversation. As a writer, Gilroy understands that the biggest conflicts mean nothing without intimate human stakes, a philosophy that shines through in his episodes, in which personal betrayals and political awakenings unfurl against the backdrop of a growing rebellion.

In our discussion, he told us about his habit of developing a unique visual style for every script and his philosophy on trusting audiences with minimal exposition. He also shares his wisdom about finding your voice as a writer, why writers don’t need interpersonal skills to succeed, and how to write action sequences that prioritize character over spectacle.

Editor’s note: The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) in Lucasfilms ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved

Final Draft: What excited you about jumping into this season and this episode block?

Dan Gilroy: Season 2 really goes to places that we always knew in Season 1 we were going to be going to, and now here we are. We knew by compressing the five-year time span into two that we’re going to get a lot going on. 

And since we know Rogue One starts with basically the biggest conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire that could happen, we knew that the events leading up to it were going to be really politically nuanced and character-based and really interesting and all this stuff that I and Tony [Gilroy], Beau [Willimon], and certainly Tom [Bissell] would sink our teeth into any day of the week.

Final Draft: You mentioned something that I think the show does so well, which is take these huge concepts and these political ideas, but make them personal and grounded. And you said there that you keep it character-based.

Dan Gilroy: Tony was the genesis of that. From the moment Tony pitched this concept of the show, it was to keep everything granular, to keep it character-based. This was not going to be a show about grand adventure, although I think there is some of that in there. 

This is about people under extraordinarily trying circumstances who are facing crises that they couldn’t imagine. The Star Wars fans, which is great about Star Wars fans, understand the crises because it’s baked into the show. 

But Tony’s marching orders for us as the writers and for himself certainly was to keep it granular and character-based, always.

Final Draft: Was there a scene or a moment in this episode block that was difficult for you to break for any reason?

Dan Gilroy: It wasn’t difficult to break. The things that I probably spent the most work on were 208 and 209. And 208, spending an enormous amount of time on the Ghorman massacre. The mechanics of it, the character ramifications of it. Lives are being turned upside down every second in that episode. It is cataclysmic. It is massively emotionally moving. Those were all pieces on a scale that you had to deal with. 

And 209. I blew my deadline by quite a bit because I became obsessed with Mon [Mothma’s] speech. The mechanics of getting her out of the building and all that stuff, I know how to do. I enjoy doing it, but to do justice to Mon’s speech required a lot of commitment and time, to be honest.

Mon Mothma (Genevieve OReilly) in Lucasfilms ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved

Final Draft: Since you mentioned the speech, what was the planning for that? Did you have an outline of the moments that you wanted to hit within it?

Dan Gilroy: I wrote it. Tony rewrote it. It wasn’t that we had things that we wanted to hit. 

For context, the Galactic Senate has a long history as a governing body. It’s driven by democratic principles. That’s baked into the show, and in 208 prior to that, and now to 209, we’re watching the descent of these senators into basically the Empire and Emperor’s rule. 

So what Mon’s witnessed now, how’s she going to approach the speech? What Mon has witnessed coming into the Senate to make the speech, she’s witnessed all of her colleagues basically abandoning their democratic beliefs out of laziness and cowardice and expediency. Mon’s speech, which I thought Genevieve delivered so flawlessly, when you’re writing it, you have to understand that she’s really speaking to two audiences. 

The first audience Mon’s addressing [is] these craven elected officials who’ve abandoned their posts and left their constituents at the mercy of evil. That’s basically what’s happening. 

The second group she’s speaking to are the galaxy’s countless inhabitants. She understands that the goal is to make people feel helpless. So she’s trying to break through that wall and talk to them, “Listen to me. I’m doing this.” So she’s basically using herself as an example for other people to follow is what she’s doing, and it is an extraordinarily brave act. 

And so it wasn’t a question of ever thinking, “What are the beats?” It was just a question of dealing with the reality of the assignment for you or anybody, “What would I say if I was in that position?” That’s really what it comes down to.

(L-R) Supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) in Lucasfilms ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved

Final Draft: I think “Who Are You?” is my favorite episode of the whole season. I would love to hear about how you approached the episode.

Dan Gilroy: It was an incredible episode to write because so many things are climaxing in that episode. I mean, Dedra (Denise Gough) and Syril (Kyle Soller) are climaxing, the rebellion on Ghorman is climaxing. Cassian (Diego Luna) is starting to want to pull away. He’s being dragged back into it to finally take out Dedra. Syril winds up meeting his nemesis. We introduced the K2s. Genocide happens in order to further the Empire’s plants to get the kalkite. 

There’s so much going on that, again, [I went] back to our marching orders dictated by Tony at the beginning of the whole process, which was don’t get lost in the plot. The plot’s going to speak for itself every day. We outlined this in the writer’s room, and Tony came in with an outline, which we refined, and I had it in front of me. I was writing, but every day that I sit down to write, I’m trying to listen to what the characters are saying, because you’re pin-balling between these different threads that are happening on Ghorman, all these different narratives.

You’re chopping up a conversation between Rylanz (Richard Sammel) and Syril. Again, “Who are you? What’s going on?” And so you trigger that. Now when you cut away from Syril, he’s launched like a guided missile toward Dedra, and it’s going to be a nightmare. And then you cut to little small things. The hotel clerk who shows you the genesis of the line, “Rebellions are built on hope.” All these things are dropping into place, but they’re all character-based. 

The scale is there, the scope is there, the action is there. But Tony and I, and Beau and Tom, certainly, I’ve always believed [that]. I write all my action—I’ve done a lot of action, Tony feels the same way—I write all my action from the point of view of character, because if you’re not involved with what people are going through, then no scale is ultimately going to grip you more than that.

Final Draft: Rather than the thing happening to the character.

Dan Gilroy: Yeah, exactly. You don’t want to move the characters around like chess pieces and go, “Oh, now they’re getting shot at.” You’re really going, “Syril’s standing there, and you’re going like, wait a minute. Syril’s standing there watching this whole thing go on. People are dying all around him. Oh my God. He must be thinking I’m responsible for this.” 

So where does that go? And then you put Dedra on the balcony and she’s told that he’s out there. “Do you want to start this riot?” “Yes. Start the riot.” Now, if you understand, if you make us feel that, you go like, “Oh my God, Dedra, what are you doing?” Instead of like, “Oh, yeah, they’re going to start shooting the guns.” So it’s craft work, basically.

Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) in Lucasfilms ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved

Final Draft: I have to mention the whole Syril arc that happens in these episodes is something that I’m also obsessed with. I feel like he’s such a tragic character. How were you planning that?

Dan Gilroy: It started all the way back at the beginning of Season 1. We decided that Dedra is a child of the Empire. She was raised by the Empire. She has a belief that we know it was unwavering. We’re never going to fully explain it, but it’s unwavering. No matter what she sees, she’s going to keep plowing that. 

We always knew that Syril was going to be split off from that. Syril is driven by need. Syril’s mother was never there for him. His father was never there for him. A pat on the head is all he ever really wants, so that takes him very far. But when we get to Ghorman and now he realizes that this emotional need is not going to be met by Dedra—as a matter of fact, she’s completely railroaded him, and he realizes that his emotion is based on nothing.

A person who has an emotional need will still see what’s going on. He now sees what Dedra sees and discounts and doesn’t care about. He sees he’s part of a massacre. So we know that. 

I firmly believe that, had Rylanz not shot him at the end when he was putting down the gun, he would’ve joined the Rebellion. I believe that deeply. He would’ve, because he’s not driven by ideology. It’s a need, and once that need is gone, he can see, “Oh my God, I’m on the wrong side. I will now go for that.” It’s just cosmic fate that he had one moment of enlightenment. A lot of people don’t get that.

Final Draft: That’s so gratifying to hear, because I’ve had arguments with people about that moment.

Dan Gilroy: No, Syril is enjoying his time with the group on Ghorman. He’s not looking at these people and going like, “Oh, they’re ideologically horrible people.” He’s going like, “Wow, I can really get satisfaction hanging around these people. These are decent people, and wow, I’ve really messed them up. I’m going to try to turn the corner on this.” He’s definitely trying to turn the corner when he is shot.

(Second from Left - R) Supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Grymish (Kurt Egyiawan) in Lucasfilms ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved

Final Draft: I think another thing that I love about the show as a whole is the fact that it never hand holds. We have the time jumps in this season. We have lots of things happening, but it never overly explains. Do you have any tactics for handling exposition?

Dan Gilroy: Exposition is one of the hardest things about writing. It really is. Because audiences need context to make connections. They really do. However, I think what Tony and I have learned in Beau, and again, Tom, I know I firmly believe—distill the critical components of what needs to be said and let the audience connect the rest of the dots. I really believe that. 

I think people spend too much time over-explaining, giving too much exposition. It’s boring. People don’t want to hear it. Audiences are just so much faster. We have a hundred thousand years of listening to campfire stories, so we’re always going, like you say, “A woman’s walking down the street and a dog comes.” Right away. We can see it. Oh, the dog is going to bite her or not bite her. She’s going to run away. I don’t need to be told that she was bitten by a dog at four. 

So we can jump around and not get bogged down in the details because we rely on the audiences. We believe the audience has a strong story sense themselves, and they lean into it if they like it and they complete the sentence.

Final Draft: I think that’s something that makes the show stand out. Oftentimes you get the explainer scenes.

Dan Gilroy: Oh, man. They’re really talking down to the audience when they do that. They really are, because somewhere a committee has decided “people are going to be confused by this, so we’ve got to make this clear.” 

Somebody should speak up and go, “You know what? I don’t think they will, and if a few of them are, there’s nothing we can do about that. But now let’s not bore the other 95% with needless exposition.” See it all the time. All the time.

Final Draft: Your writing style is really unique. Your writing style on Nightcrawler, for instance, didn’t have sluglines. Is that still how you operate?

Dan Gilroy: No. Every script now, I use a different style. I’m a fanatic for messing around with style. I don’t like just the typical style. I did a script a couple years ago where I actually took the style for the script—not the idea—the original Alien script has just very, almost haiku lines, single lines that go down. There’s no attempt to connect with the audience. 

I almost spend two weeks before I write a script coming up with the style of that script, because the style is really important. It transmits something about the idea, and it gets boring if you don’t do that a little. I’m a little ADD.

Final Draft: Is there something that you wish you had learned as a writer early on?

Dan Gilroy: I wish that I had trusted my own voice earlier. I think in order to succeed, to make money, to have your work get made, you need a bunch of things. You need an incredible work ethic. You really can’t work hard enough and to compete, it’s just too competitive. You have to work. 

Two, you have to have some innate sense of what you’re doing. You have to have some innate sense of talent. That’s important, but you also need this third thing, which I found out late in my career. 

You need to have a voice. You can’t just have a generic, “Oh, I write action, and it’s like other action.” Tony has a voice. You can hear Tony’s voice. I do now have a voice, Beau Willimon has a voice. Tom has a voice. You want to explore your voice and really let yourself go and come through in the script, and you’ll learn something about yourself.

You may go, “Wow, I didn’t realize I was so funny, and my stuff tends toward light.” Or, “Wow, I’m really kind of brooding in dark and I’m writing noirs a lot,” or whatever it is. Go there, find that, explore that, because [that’s] where your strength is, to a degree. 

Your ideas have to somehow land in the commercial marketplace. If it’s too niche, it won’t sell. So you want to have something in the sense that a wider audience wants to see it. But at the same time, don’t be afraid to write something where you go, “I don’t know what this is, this is like nothing else I’ve ever seen.” That’s okay. If you think there’s an audience for it, then you’re probably right. 

But go with your voice. Explore your voice. Only you can tell the story. I can’t tell a story like you. I can’t, and your stories are incredibly entertaining and moving and powerful, and you can’t tell a story like somebody you work with. So be yourself. Find your voice. It’s like a music group. You, you’re a song you write right away. I know that. That’s Radiohead, that’s Coldplay. That’s whoever. You know who they are. They’re not trying to sound like anybody. So when you’re writing, don’t feel like you have to come up with ideas that are like other people’s ideas. I think that’s important.

Final Draft: Are there skills beyond the technical skills, maybe interpersonal skills that you would recommend people develop as writer?

Dan Gilroy: As a director, definitely. As a writer? Interpersonal skills. 

The weird thing about being a writer is you don’t have to have any interpersonal skills. Watch that opening scene in Adaptation where Charlie Kaufman is sitting down with the studio executive. God bless him. He’s self referential. I’ve never met him, but he presents himself as somebody who’s utterly asocial and at a loss with anyone he encounters. And yet, to my mind, he’s one of the most successful screenwriters ever. 

You can be utterly, utterly inept. Matter of fact, I think there are studio people and agents who sort of expect you to be socially inept. So you’re like, “Well, yeah, because [they’re] really talented. They’re kind of strange. It’s like you can’t really talk to them.” 

You don’t want to have a drug habit or an alcohol problem and not be able to make deals. But at the same time, if you’re socially awkward as a writer? Okay, pitching is a nightmare. If you’re socially awkward, pitching is a nightmare, then you’ve got your work cut out for you. But in terms of the other stuff—no, man. 

Writers are weird people. Who else would sit in a room 12 hours a day for your whole life and play? That’s what I do.

Final Draft: Do you have a favorite moment from your episodes?

Dan Gilroy: I have two favorite moments. One favorite moment is at the end of 208, when Cassian’s driving away and you hear the broadcast asking for help. Because that’s really everything we were working up to in that episode. We are hearing the futile cry for help from a person who is obviously distraught and is losing everything as you’re listening, and there’s no help. And that to me is very powerful. 

And similarly in tone, I love in 209, again, when Mon builds up to accusing the Emperor as being the one behind it. I love the emotion of those two moments. 

To me, movies are emotion, stories are emotion. So if you ask me my favorite moment, I’ll always go to what I think to be the most emotional beat. And when I watch people’s reactions online, those moments, really, people respond to those moments. Those are powerful moments. So I think we’ve done our job as storytellers when people react in the climax and go, “Wow, I really felt something there that was powerful and meaningful to me.”

Final Draft: I definitely cried at the end of “Who Are You?”

Dan Gilroy: You’ve watched an unstoppable tragedy. It was going to happen. You could tell it was going to happen, and there was this tragedy of the inevitability of it and how hopeless the situation was for the people on Ghorman. 

And yet there’s that one little atom of hope that Cassian’s going to do something by surviving that’s going to ultimately bring down this machine, this massive machine that’s been engaged in the destruction of people. 

It’s a timeless story. It is history repeating itself. We don’t want to be oppressed. We don’t want unbridled authority to exert its will. It’s happened too many times throughout history, and we certainly don’t like it. And so people who stand up to it have a special place in our hearts, and I think somewhere in heaven, wherever that is, those people have a good seat, I think.

Final Draft: Is there anything you want to add?

Dan Gilroy: I love the show. You’re talking to me, but thousands of people are responsible for this show, and I really tip my hat to every one of them.

Final Draft: It’s so good.

Dan Gilroy: Thank you. I love hearing that. I love hearing that as a part of something that I think has meaning. I think it has meaning, and the main aim was always to entertain, but the show does have a meaning that’s resonating in a way that I’m very proud of.