That Would Be Me

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced in February 2018 that there were several Star Wars series in development,[1] and that November one was revealed as a prequel to the film Rogue One (2016). The series was described as a spy thriller show focused on the character Cassian Andor, with Diego Luna reprising his role from the film.[2] Jared Bush originally developed the series, writing a pilot script and series bible for the project.[3] By the end of November, Stephen Schiff was serving as showrunner and executive producer of the series.[3] Tony Gilroy, who was credited as a co-writer on Rogue One and oversaw extensive reshoots for the film,[4] joined the series by early 2019 when he discussed the first story details with Luna.[5] Gilroy's involvement was revealed that October, when he was set to write the first episode, direct multiple episodes, and work alongside Schiff;[4] Gilroy had officially replaced Schiff as showrunner by April 2020.[6] Six weeks of pre-production for the series had taken place in the United Kingdom by then, but this was halted and production on the series delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[7][8] Pre-production had begun again by September ahead of a planned filming start the next month. At that time, Gilroy, who is based in New York, chose not to travel to the UK for production on the series due to the pandemic, and was therefore unable to direct the series' first episode. Instead, the UK-based Toby Haynes, who was already "high on the list" of potential directors for the series, was hired to direct the first three episodes. Gilroy would remain executive producer and showrunner.[9] In December 2020, Luna was revealed to be executive producing the series.[10]

The second episode, titled "That Would Be Me", was written by Tony Gilroy.[11]

The writing was structured so that a story arc is contained in every three episodes.[12] For the first three episodes, Gilroy had wanted to address Andor's accent while also exploring his backstory further. He had originally created Andor's origin story while writing the series, and opted to include it earlier in the series to avoid having to "carry it through the whole show". Further describing it as a "contained piece", he had also commented "at some point, I [Gilroy] must have come up with the cutting pattern, and then the interesting thing became how to really tell the young Cassian story, how to stretch that out, and how to get the most out of it".[13]

Flashbacks in the episode revealed that Andor's birth name is Kassa and one of the main reasons to include the flashbacks was to explain Andor's accent.[14][15] The episode consisted of the first depiction of the BBY/ABY timescale (Before or After the Battle of Yavin) in any Star Wars series or film when it featured BBY 5 on the screen during the opening scene. Previously the scale was used only by fans to create a timeline of the events of the franchise, with a zero point being the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope with the destruction of the first Death Star.[16][17]

The episode stars Diego Luna as Cassian Andor,[2][18] Kyle Soller as Syril Karn, Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen, Joplin Sibtain as Brasso, James McArdle as Timm Karlo, and Rupert Vansittart as Chief Hyne.[18]

Filming began in London, England, at the end of November 2020,[19][20] with the production based at Pinewood Studios.[21][22] The series was filmed under the working title Pilgrim,[21] and was the first live-action Star Wars series to not make use of the StageCraft digital background technology.[23] Filming locations included Black Park in Buckinghamshire, England for the flashback scenes, as well as at Middle Peak Quarry in Derbyshire, England.[24]

Nicholas Britell composed the musical score for the episode.[25][26] The episode's soundtrack was released in October 2022 as part of the first volume for the series. The volume also consisted of the soundtracks for episodes 3–4.[27]

The first three episodes released at the same time and according to Nielsen Media Research who measure the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, Andor was the sixth-most watched original series across streaming services for the week of September 19–25, 2022, with 624 million minutes watched.[32]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 90% approval rating with an average rating of 7.70/10, based on 110 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "This installment suffers from being the middle chapter of a three-parter that needs to be watched concurrently to yield any payoff, but Andor's galactic scale and keen writing shine on."[33]