Screenwriter Beau Willimon has shared which Andor character was his favorite to write for and why he’d be excited to work on a potential Star Wars spinoff show. Andor has widely and rightly been hailed as Star Wars’ best TV show. It may not feature the Jedi or the Sith, but it is about everything that Star Wars has stood for since the very first Star Wars movie.

Andor is a mature, intricate, political study of oppression, rebellion, and the tragic, selfless sacrifices necessary to build a better future. While characters like Cᴀssian Andor, Mon Mothma, Luthen Rael, Kleya Marki, and Bix Calleen all represent the spirit of the Rebellion in different, emotionally moving ways, perhaps no character better exemplifies the toll that fighting for a better tomorrow can have on a person than Saw Gerrera.

Beau Willimon agrees. In an interview with The Playlist’s Rodrigo Perez, Willimon revealed that Saw Gerrera was his favorite Andor character to write, largely because Gerrera is willing to sacrifice anything – his sanity, other lives – in the name of the Rebellion. Gerrera operates on the fringes of the Rebel Alliance, and that’s an undeniably interesting place to be.

“I’ve got to go with Saw Gerrera because you get to write these grand arias, and he’s so wonderfully and deliciously insane.”

“Through ‘Rogue One,’ we know that anyone who’s still alive in the ‘Andor’ show, most of them are going to bite the dust in the movie that you watch right after episode 12 of season 2. So, it’s this idea of—who are the people that are willing to do this, to make these sacrifices, that need this despite the fact that they’ll never see the fruits of their labor. No one, I think, illustrates that idea better than Saw Gerrera.”

When Perez proposed the idea of a Gerrera-centric Andor spinoff, Willimon enthusiastically agreed that it would be a great concept for a show, one he’d love to work on once he’s finished with James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi script – if Lucasfilm were ever interested in taking the Rebellion’s story one step further, that is.

“I would always be down for that. I’ve had a blast working on ‘Andor,’ and I have my hands full with my current commitment with James [Mangold], so that’s my first priority. But would I answer that phone call? Abso-f**king-lutely I would.”

Saw Gerrera Is One Of Star Wars’ Most Complex Characters

Gerrera has been a fixture of Star Wars’ Skywalker saga-era storytelling since Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5, introduced as a resistance fighter on his home world of Onderon. With the help of a few select Jedi, Saw and his sister, Steela, were able to liberate Onderon, but it came at a steep price: Steela died, and Saw was left to pick up the pieces.

The death of his sister fueled him, especially once the Empire took control of the galaxy. He became obsessive, instinctual, using increasingly extreme tactics to hit the Empire where it hurt. This caused strife between him and other leaders of the Rebel Alliance, especially Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and even Luthen Rael, whose own plans were often considered too risky.

What’s interesting about Saw’s story is that his sister was originally the leader of Onderon’s resistance, and it’s made clear she would have fought more like Mon and Bail. At a certain point, Saw was so far gone, so focused on winning and fighting for a future he already knew he wouldn’t see. Would she have been proud or disappointed? We’ll never know. Perhaps that haunts Saw as well.

Our Take On A Potential Saw Gerrera Star Wars Spinoff

What we’ve learned from shows like Andor and Star Wars Rebels was that the Rebellion, especially in the early days, was essentially made up of three branches. There’s Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and the rest of the Yavin 4 rebels on one side. Saw and his band of fighters are on the opposite end of the spectrum, and Luthen and Kleya operate somewhere in the middle.

We’ve had Mon Mothma’s story and Luthen’s story; perhaps it’s time to learn more about Saw. What we’ve seen so far, across The Clone Wars, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Andor, and Rogue One, are all just brief glimpses in time. Whenever Saw is on-screen, he’s changed significantly; more erratic, more motivated, more radical.

What happened in between? How did he become this new person every time? That’s what I’d love to see in a hypothetical Saw Gerrera-focused Andor spinoff show.

Source: The Playlist