Andor Creator reveals Disney’s budget of $ 650 million: streaming is dead
“Andor” Maker Tony Gilroy dropped a bomb during a recent Q&A at the ATX Television Festival (via Indiewire): The total budget for the “Star Wars” series with 24 episodes was $ 650 million, he claimed. Released over two seasons in 2022 and 2025, “Andor” ended his run last month to criticize. The series was a prequel of the 2016 movie “Rogue One” (Die Gilroy Co-written) and centered on Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, a thief became rebels spy.
“I mean, [for] Disney This is $ 650 million, “said Gilroy.” I have never taken a note for 24 episodes. We said ‘Fuck the Empire’ in the first season and they said, “Can you please don’t do that?” … in season 2 they said: “Streaming is dead, we don’t have the money we had before,” so we fought hard on money, but they never cleaned up anything. That [freedom] Comes with responsibilities. ”
The studio had no comments on the Gilroy budget Variety. Production on “Andor” season 2 was mainly paused in the midst of the Hollywood attacks. A source that is familiar with production said that the strikes of the guild have added around $ 20 million in closing costs to the budget of “Andor” and that episodes cost an estimated $ 20 million after tax stimuli, similar to the reported delivery budgets of “House of the Dragon” and “Dismissal”.
Gilroy pushed the boundaries of Disney and the boundaries of the “Star Wars” with “Andor”. While he withdrew to let a character say “Fuck the Empire” in the final of the first season, he eventually received topics such as genocide and attack in the second season of the show without studio interference. Gilroy said on ATX that he deliberately started ‘Andor’ with a scene in a brothel as a litmus test for Disney.
‘I worked on’ rogue [One]’So I knew what the [permissible] Levels of violence were, and actually the rules came out considerably, “Gilroy said.” Yes, we can’t have skin, but I consciously started the first scene in a brothel to see what would happen and how far we could go. There is sex. … It is something that at some point it seemed as if it were going to be a big fear, and it turned out to be really a Niets-Burger. “
Gilroy Previously told Variety That he “wrote a legal assignment” to Disney when he tried to get the studio to allow him “Fuck the Empire” to say and explain: “I wrote a memo about it and said:” Here is why I think it’s economically careful, and here is why I think it’s good. “
“Disney would not let us use it,” director Benjamin Caron added Variety. “So we changed it to ‘Fight the Empire’. I remember that I had a phone call with Tony Gilroy and said, “Are we going to get away with this?” “
The “Andor” team could not let Disney say “Fuck the Empire”, but they did get away by discussing genocide in season 2 (Gilroy said at ATX that being able to do “pretty flawless”). In the second season, Adria Arjona’s Binx was also openly called for an attempt at sexual violence. Bix calls about an officer: “He tried to rap me!”
“I remember reading that, and within the truth of that moment of abuse of power, really afraid to go in that scene,” Arjona said Variety. “But there was also something – I am going to curse – really damn powerful that I can show this far in a galaxy, far away. The fact that Tony gave it to Bix was a great honor – and it was good. She is in the most vulnerable condition in which she may be in, and someone is trying to take advantage of her. We have heard that story many times.”
Both seasons of “Andor” now stream on Disney+.
