‘Andor' creator reveals why they recast major ‘Star Wars' character in Season 2
There's a new Senator Bail Organa in the galaxy.
The role of Princess Leia's adoptive father was recast in the second season of the hit 'Star Wars' series 'Andor.'
Benjamin Bratt officially stepped into the role in place of Jimmy Smits in the sixth episode that premiered on Disney+ Tuesday.
9 Jimmy Smits as Senator Bail Organa in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' (2016).
©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
9 Benjamin Bratt as Senator Bail Organa in 'Andor' Season 2.
Disney
Creator Tony Gilroy told Entertainment Weekly that they failed to get Smits, 69, to return as Bail.
'We couldn't work it out,' said Gilroy, 68. 'The scheduling didn't work out. We really tried hard, but he wasn't available and couldn't make it.'
9 Tony Gilroy poses for a portrait to promote 'Andor' on April 15 in Los Angeles.
Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP
'Bringing back legacy characters is really complicated,' the filmmaker continued. 'It's very expensive. It's very, who's working when. A lot of effort went into it, but we just couldn't work it out scheduling wise.'
Gilroy added to ScreenRant, 'It's really hard to bring legacy characters back for a whole variety of reasons. Money and scheduling and I mean, he [Smits] just wasn't available. It didn't work out. He was doing his other show and we were under the gun and they couldn't work it out. They just couldn't work it out. Believe me, we really tried, but it couldn't happen.'
9 Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa in 'Star Wars: Attack of the Clones' (2002).
Smits was busy shooting his CBS show 'East New York' during the filming of 'Andor' Season 2.
The actor made his debut in the 'Star Wars' franchise in 'Episode II: Attack of the Clones' (2002). He played Bail again in 'Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' (2005), 'Rogue One' (2016) and the Disney+ miniseries 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' (2022).
Bail was first referenced in 'Episode IV: A New Hope' (1977), in which he's killed when the Death Star blows up his home planet Alderaan.
9 Jimmy Smits in 'Obi-Wan Kenobi.'
©Disney+/Courtesy Everett Collection
9 Yoda, Ewan McGregor, Jimmy Smits in 'Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith' (2005).
©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
Gilroy told EW that LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy came up with the idea to cast Bratt, 61, as the senator.
'It was just a brilliant idea. He's a wonderful human being and really eager and beloved on set and really happy about what he does,' said Gilroy.
9 Benjamin Bratt at a screening of 'Millers in Marriage' in NYC on Feb. 20.
Getty Images
The Oscar-nominated director also shared that Bratt's brief appearance in Episode 6 of 'Andor' Season 2 was 'so people will get the conversation out of the way until the next week when he really starts to work.'
'It's one of those situations where I want to do something simple,' Gilroy continued. 'We don't do many things that are unnecessary, but it's like, 'Let's get him in here now so people can discuss it for a week and get it out of their system and then he can come back to really work.' I didn't want the guy's work to be confused with his introduction.'
9 Diego Luna in 'Andor' Season 2.
Des Willie /Lucasfilm Ltd.
9 Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma, Ben Miles as Tay Kolma in 'Andor' Season 2.
AP
'Andor' stars Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in his journey from thief to rebel spy.
The series is set several years before the events of 'Rogue One,' which explains how the Rebellion steal the plans to the Death Star which they destroy in 'A New Hope.'
New episodes of 'Andor' Season 2 come out Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Disney+.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Andor' Season 2 Effects Team Did a Wild Number of Things For Real
'Keep it grounded, keep it real' has always been Andor creator Tony Gilroy's mandate to his effects team. For the acclaimed Disney+ Star Wars drama's second season, Gilroy's marching order meant building a massive 'flying' TIE fighter from the ground up, figuring out a fresh way to film a Speeder Bike chase, tweaking the iconic Stormtrooper laser blasts, and solving countless creative challenges (there were 4,140 effects shots). Below, Andor VFX supervisor Mohen Leo (who led the show's digital effects team) and SFX Supervisor Luke Murphy (who tackled the show's practical effects) discuss pulling off the season's biggest visuals — as well as some of the smallest, which often turned out to be the trickiest. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Wolf Hall' Director on How He Pulled off The Silent Scene That Relayed a Thousand Words Why 'The Handmaid's Tale' Has Become a Feminist Life Raft Tonys: Sarah Paulson on the Truth-Teller Behind the Pulitzer-Winning Play 'Purpose' What was the hardest effect to pull off in season two? MOHEN LEO The most ambitious sequence was the TIE Avenger escape [in the season's first episode]. That was in preparation for months — trying to figure out how to keep this sequence within the language of the show. I didn't want to start the season off with something that was only computer generated. In conversations with Tony and with Luke, we talked about designing a sequence that starts with much more traditional filmmaking — with a practical set where we can use practical effects. And then, over the course of that sequence, transition into digital effects [as the fighter flies out of the hanger]. I'm assuming that TIE fighter was actually built? Because you see it on the ground in multiple settings and I thought it was really there. LUKE MURPHY That thing was [actually built] and it sat on its wings. It was one of the most challenging builds we've ever done. It had a steel core and with materials used in aircraft — loads of aluminum composite panels, carbon fiber. We did everything we could to make that thing as strong as possible without having to rely on other structures that would then get painted out [with CG]. Actors could touch it and walk into it. Then we could literally lift that thing up with a crane and fly it around. Back in the day, George Lucas famously used World War II dogfight footage for creating aerial scenes. What do you use now? LEO I try to avoid referencing other movies. There's almost no excuse not to look at real world references because you can find a fantastic reference for almost anything. There's a shot in episode three when Cassian arrives with the TIE Avenger and he overtakes a troop transporter with the troops sitting in it. The idea for that shot came from looking on YouTube for Apache helicopter shots because we were saying, 'Okay, [the TIE fighter] should behave a little bit like a mix of a jet and an Apache.' And I found that same shot of troops driving through the desert and out of the dust comes an Apache. You also had a speeder bike scene, which has come a long way since . LEO One of the things that always bugs me with Star Wars speeder bikes is you can tell that it's someone on a blue screen with a wind machine, and then we put the background in. Luke ultimately came up with a fantastic solution with the stunts team for the speeder bike chase [through a wheat field] for the shots where you don't see Brasso's (Joplin Sibtain) face. MURPHY The speeder stuff is always tricky. But we managed to get a speeder bike built onto the actual V-8 of a high-speed all-terrain vehicle, and then that was driven by a stunt driver. And I think what really helped there — Oh, the crops! MURPHY Yeah. The speed is supposed to be hundreds of miles an hour, right? That's the reality in the Star Wars world. We were fortunate enough to get some really good shots at a very safe speed that look really dynamic, and then we just [digitally] tidy and clean stuff up. It feels believable because the stunt man is really gunning it and going for it. There was lot of paperwork involved in satisfying [the production's] risk management assessors. What shot or effect are you most proud of this season? MURPHY One of the biggest challenges for us was we had to create a 17-ton electric snowplow for the heist sequence. When that vehicle comes down the street and crashes, it rips up the street for 80 feet. I was nervous that day. It was so cold that the breakaway material we were using in the street was sticking together. So at the last minute, we had to lift up 400 paving slabs and loosen all the material underneath. See, that's a shot I would just assume was digital. LEO When you're in visual effects and see there's going to be a shot like that, you always think, 'We're probably going to have to make a whole lot of [CG changes].' We just had to paint away the camera rail — and that's it. We didn't augment that in any way. It looked fantastic just as it was. MURPHY Another shot I was super happy with was when the grain comes out that silo and hits those stormtroopers. We set up a rig to do that and those guys got wiped out by 16 tons of grain. The shots of K2SO in the cockpit, those are digital? My brain was telling me that has to be in effect, but he's so very there. Also, there's so much subtle expression, with the eyes and head movements. LEO It was so important to have Alan back because he really embodied that character, and for his chemistry with Diego. Something we learned on Rogue One was you have to look at things that Alan might express with his face that you couldn't transfer onto K2SO directly because his face doesn't move — other than the eyes. So you find ways to transfer a facial expression into a little tilt of the head, or a movement of the eyes. Interestingly though, we did have a practical K2SO — like in the sequence where he's [deactivated on the table], he's practical. The moment he wakes up, he's digital. Is there anything from the long line of Star Wars video games that inspired any practical or visual effects the season? LEO There is one Easter Egg, I think in episode four. There are a couple of guards that watching pod racing on a screen. The way it was initially written was that they were watching sports. But there's not really football and stuff like that [in Star Wars]. We were like, 'Can we do pod racing?' Then I went back trying to find aerial footage we could use for those shots. There's a game called Star Wars Episode I: Racer from 1999 and it had a bunch of tracks in it. So it uses the track name from the game. Let's talk a moment about the evolution of the stormtroopers' red laser blasts as seen during the hallway fight scene. I feel like back in the day the lasers looked more chunky, and now they're thinner and more darting? LEO If you look at the original trilogy, because [the lasers] were [painted] manually, there is a larger degree of inconsistency. [The lasers] are not always the same colors and not always the same width. So starting with Rogue One, [ILM Chief Creative Officer] John Knoll said, 'Okay, let's really think about what is the visual language of these carrying forward.' We started doing something that is thinner, and has a pointy diamond shape — like arrow tip — at the front. Another thing John pointed out was that for the bigger laser shots — like from the TIE fighter, for example — is that when a green laser hits something, the first two frames of the explosion are green. When a red laser hits something, the first two frames of the explosion are red. There also needs to be always some wiggle room for the individual director to have a say. It's the same with [a ship going into] hyperspace. It's sometimes much more colorful. In Andor, it's a bit muted because it's a backdrop for intense character drama and you don't want it to be distracting. 'Grounded and real' is probably something that a lot of showrunners walk in asking for. But it's impressive Tony had the heft to do that. And then you guys, obviously, pulled it off. LEO I think it's not just heft. It was this understanding of restraint — from Tony and John Gilroy, his brother, the supervising editor, and even the directors. You didn't want to be flashy when it was inappropriate for the story. So there were a number of big visual effects shots that we ultimately cut or toned down because they just felt like they didn't belong. That's interesting. What's an example of a flashy effect shot that was cut? LEO Like there were a couple directors who said, 'Let's start with a big aerial establishing shot, and then cut into the location.' And Tony and John said, 'We don't need that. It's all about the characters, let's go straight into the drama.' What looked really simple but in reality was very difficult? MURPHY The scene where there's a bubbling liquid poured [onto Luthen's spy network communications panel to destroy it]. Really small stuff like that that you wouldn't think was a big deal when you're breaking down a script. Another challenge was the elevator in the Senate building because it's a cylinder with doors that open and then it all moves diagonally. It was compound curves everywhere and it felt like geometry was against us every step of the way. That was quite a challenging rig [to build]. And again, when you read in the script, 'Mon steps out of an elevator,' you think, 'Okay, fine.' Then you see the drawings. It's always the stuff where you go, 'Oh, that's a just a two-minute job' that turns out to be a total monster. This story first appeared in a May stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders reject CEO David Zaslav's pay package
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted on Tuesday to reject the pay packages for several of the company's executives, including CEO David Zaslav's compensation package of more than $50 million. Nearly 60% of the symbolic vote was against the 2024 executive payouts at Warner Bros. Discovery's annual meeting, according to a regulatory filing. The vote is non-binding. Last year, shareholders narrowly approved executive pay, with 53% voting in favor. Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN. Zaslav, who has been CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery since 2022, when the company was created by the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc., was paid a total of $51.9 million last year, including equity awards and other compensation. Warner Bros. Discovery's stock (WBD) declined 7% in 2024, while media competitor Netflix (NFLX) saw its stock gain more than 80% in 2024 and Disney's stock (DIS) rose 24%. Netflix's co-CEOs, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, were paid $61.9 million and $60.3 million last year, respectively, while Disney's Bob Iger was paid $41.1 million. The broader S&P 500 gained over 23% last year. Warner Bros. Discovery did not respond to a request for comment. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Drake Hogestyn's ‘Days of Our Lives' character killed off 8 months after actor's death
Like sands through the hourglass. 'Days of Our Lives' officially killed off Drake Hogestyn's character, John Black, on Monday. The emotional episode came eight months after Hogestyn passed away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 70 on September 28, 2024, and it saw Black flatline in a hospital with his wife, Dr. Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall), close by his side. 7 Drake Hogestyn as John Black and Deidre Hall as Marlena Evans on 'Days of Our Lives.' Peacock 7 The actor portraying John Black in his farewell episode was completely covered in gauze to sidestep the fact that the character was no longer being played by Hogestyn. Peacock 'You have put up the bravest fight I have ever seen,' Evans told her dying husband in the character's final scene. 'I know you're weary. I know you're suffering. If you need to go, it's okay.' Black was injured in a lab explosion days before his death as he tried to help Steve (Stephen Nichols) discover a drug to save Bo (Peter Reckell). His body was completely covered in gauze to sidestep the fact that the character was no longer being played by Hogestyn. 7 Hogestyn joined 'Days of Our Lives' in 1986, appeared on the hit soap opera for 38 years and filmed over 4,200 episodes. ©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection 'We will always have you in our memories,' Hall's character, who married Hogestyn's character six times, said. 'We will always hold you in our hearts. You can rest now.' A montage of the two 'Days of Our Lives' characters' decades-long love story also played just before Black flatlined and was officially killed off. 'I know. I know,' Hall, 77, wrote on Instagram after the episode aired this week. 'Hardest day ever.' 7 Hogestyn and Hall's soap opera characters married six times in the series. ©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection Reckell, who returned to 'Days of Our Lives' as Bo for the first time since 2023 for the touching episode, said there was 'no acting required' when it came time to say goodbye to Hogestyn's character in the wake of the actor's actual passing. 'It's still difficult to talk about because Drake touched everybody in his sphere so closely, and he was my brother and one of my best friends,' Reckell, 70, told TV Insider. 'Having his memorial, there was no acting required in those scenes, because you're saying things as the character that parallel your feelings in your personal relationship.' 'When I went to John's memorial and all these emotions came up, I just wanted to run away and be by myself and feel those feelings,' he added. 'To have to do it as a character was really difficult.' 7 'I know. I know,' Hall wrote on Instagram after the emotional episode aired. 'Hardest day ever.' Peacock The popular soap opera's executive producer, Ken Corday, previously revealed that John Black's death scene was a direct result of Hogestyn's real-life battle with pancreatic cancer. Corday, 74, told Soap Opera Digest in November that Hogestyn 'signed off' on his character's death scene shortly before he succumbed to his diagnosis. Hogestyn's final 'Days of Our Lives' episode before his death aired on September 9, 2024. It saw his character share several emotional moments with his on-screen grandson, Tate (Leo Howard). 7 Hogestyn as John Black and Hall as Dr. Marlena Evans during Smokey Robinson's Season 41 guest appearance on the popular soap opera. ©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection The show's official Instagram page announced Hogestyn's heartbreaking passing on September 28, just one day before his 71st birthday. 'It's with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Drake Hogestyn,' the statement read. 'He was thrown the curveball of his life when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but he faced the challenge with incredible strength and determination.' 7 Hogestyn passed away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 70 on September 28, 2024. Peacock 'After putting up an unbelievable fight, he passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones,' it continued. 'He was the most amazing husband, father, papa and actor. He loved performing for the Days audience and sharing the stage with the greatest cast, crew, and production team in the business.' 'We love him and we will miss him all the Days of our Lives,' the statement concluded. Hogestyn joined 'Days of Our Lives' in 1986. He appeared on the hit soap opera for 38 years and filmed over 4,200 episodes.
