Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy has been teasing K-2SO’s arrival since the two-season Disney+ series was first announced. So, will K-2SO appear in Andor Season 2 as promised?
Related: When Is Andor Set on the Star Wars Timeline?
Is Rogue One’s K-2SO in Andor Season 2?
![K-2SO on Jedha in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, standing in a bullet-riddled town staring off screen](https://www.escapistmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Rogue_One_A_Star_Wars_Story_K-2SO_on_Jedha.jpg?w=1024&resize=1200%2C675)
Yes, K-2SO is in Andor Season 2. What’s more, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s Alan Tudyk will once again voice the Imperial security droid (and presumably supply his motion capture performance, as well). K-2SO’s inclusion in Andor Season 2 shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; Gilroy has long indicated the droid’s late introduction was always his plan.
The showrunner explained why a Cassian Andor/K-2SO team-up didn’t make sense in Season 1 in a 2022 Hollywood Reporter interview, noting that the latter didn’t fit with the former’s circumstances or skill set. “It’s difficult to carry an Imperial droid around with you and not draw all kinds of attention, Gilroy said, adding, “We’re starting [Cassian] so far away from the person who would know how toāor be motivated toāreprogram an Imperial droid.”
Related: Is Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyās Orson Krennic in Andor Season 2?
Gilroy remained true to his word, too. While Cassian Andor does indeed run afoul of a KX-series security droid in Andor Season 1, Star Wars canon is clear: it’s not K-2SO. This also tracks with sentiments Gilroy expressed elsewhere in the THR interview, where he hyped K-2SO’s eventual Andor arrival as “spectacular.” Whether that translates to a retelling of the first encounter between Cassian and K-2SO in Season 2 is still up in the air, however.
After all, this momentous occasion has already been documented in other Star Wars media. 2017 comic book one-shot Star Wars: Rogue One ā Cassian and K-2SO depicts Cassian fighting and ultimately reprogramming his future co-pilot. So, if Gilroy does plan on dramatizing Cassian and K-2SO’s original meeting, it’ll be interesting to see whether he adapts the comics version or does something different, instead.
K-2SO Played a Much Bigger Part in Lucasfilmās Original Vision for Andor
So, K-2SO is coming to Andor Season 2, but did you know Lucasfilm originally had much bigger plans for him? Indeed, the one-time Imperial enforcer was slated to serve as Cassian Andor’s co-star early in Andor’s development. “It was in the vein of Cassian and K-2 are like Butch and Sundance, and they’re gonna storm the Citadel,” Gilroy told Variety in 2022.
Related: When Does Andor Season 2 Come Out?
Gilroy wasn’t a fan of this approach, describing it as “very hard to sustain” within TV’s long-form, serialized storytelling format. He penned an exhaustive “manifesto” summing up all the problems with Lucasfilm’s Andor concept and proposing a different take on the spinoff, instead. The studio was impressed, and Gilroy’s K-2SO-lite series got the green light.
Andor Season 1 is currently streaming on Disney+. Season 2 does not yet have a release date.
Published: Aug 14, 2024 10:37 am