Star Wars TV Show Andor's Massive Budget Revealed In New Report

The Disney+ Star Wars TV series Andor reportedly carried a massive budget, and creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy says it was justified because the show couldn't be made cheaply.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andor the show had a production cost of $250 million. There were 12 episodes in Season 1, which would break down to $20 million per episode. The story isn't clear on if $250 million was the budget for the first season or both.

In any event, it's a big number and Gilroy said his team "got lucky." That's because Disney greenlit the show during the "gold rush" of TV deals when companies like Disney and others were spending big money to create content.

"A lot of people now have cold feet, and you can't do this show inexpensively," Gilroy said. "I'm just so relieved at the reaction because we were making this huge, obscure thing and we knew it was crazy. Like, 'Is this too much? Have we gone too far?' There were no focus groups or test audiences. Now it will be good if we can stick the landing and go out strong."

Andor is coming back for a second and final season, which is set for release in August 2024. That could seemingly change, though, as production is shutting down due to the writers' strike.

The TV show is a prequel to the movie Rogue One, which Gilroy also wrote. Season 2 will bring the events forward to where Rogue One began.

Diego Luna stars on Andor as the main character, Cassian Andor. The cast also includes Kyle Soller, Stellan Skarsgard, Genevieve O'Reilly, and Anton Lesser.

On the more immediate horizon, the Star Wars TV show Ahsoka debuts this August on Disney Plus. Another show, The Acolyte, is coming at some point later.

In terms of Star Wars movies, Disney just recently announced the release dates for a number of upcoming films.