Tony Gilroy says The Mandalorian is to thank for Andor: "No Baby Yoda, no Andor"

Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy says The Mandalorian helped bring his own Star Wars show into being.

"The success of The Mandalorian gave us the platform to jump off," he told Empire magazine. "Their success is what would fuel the whole thing. I mean, no Baby Yoda, no Andor. Seriously. Don't think that we don't know that."

Gilroy also gave a shout out to The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and executive producer (and Lucasfilm's chief creative officer) Dave Filoni. "Online, [people] try to drive a wedge all the time between us, and [Jon] Favreau and [Dave] Filoni," he said. "It's horrible what people say; it's terrible. And the truth is, we don't have a show without them. They gave us the muscle to go."

Andor season 2 will be the final installment in Cassian Andor's story, releasing in three episode arcs that will cover a year each on the Star Wars timeline – all building to the events of Rogue One.

"If you have your DVD or Blu-ray of Rogue One, you should plug it in as soon as the season ends, and you'll see a film that will be resignified," Diego Luna recently told our sister publication SFX magazine.

"You're going to see it differently, with so much information you didn't have before. You knew nothing about this bunch of Rebels that got together and made this sacrifice, and then we did a show of 24 episodes about one of them. I definitely believe it's going to change the experience because it's now so full of answers – almost many more than you even wanted when you watched Rogue One, like who Cassian's mother was, what was the first droid he had a strong connection with [that'll be B2EMO], how his bedroom was… You've seen enough of this man now that you will go, like, 'Holy shit, that’s what he meant?'"

Andor season 2 arrives this April 22 on Disney Plus. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows for everything else the galaxy far, far away has in store.