“Andor” Creator On Why Marvel Movies Fail

Before it aired and was revealed to be the dense and rich political drama that it was, “Andor” was not exactly a highly anticipated series. Between “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Star Wars” TV shows seemed to have something of a formula and relatively similar tone and “Andor” was likely […] The post “Andor” Creator On Why Marvel Movies Fail appeared first on Dark Horizons.

May 25, 2025 - 10:30

“Andor” Creator On Why Marvel Movies Fail

Before it aired and was revealed to be the dense and rich political drama that it was, “Andor” was not exactly a highly anticipated series.

Between “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Star Wars” TV shows seemed to have something of a formula and relatively similar tone and “Andor” was likely to be more of the same.

Then along came showrunner Tony Gilroy who subverted expectations in the best possible way, offering a look at the “Star Wars” world with rich adult themes, a very serious tone, and high quality production values much more reliant on practical locations and sets.

During an interview with Slashfilm recently, Gilroy thought back to Disney/Lucasfilm’s original pitch for the series and revealed it was more an action-adventure buddy comedy with Cassian (Diego Luna) and K-2S0 (Alan Tudyk) with the studio wanting to get to the “Rogue One” events much faster:

“[K-2SO’s late introduction was] something I always intended. The versions that they had of the show prior, they were slick and they were interesting. They were not bad, but they had a fatal flaw, it seemed to me, which is if that’s your show, that we’re going to storm the Citadel in the pilot, what are you going to do in episode 9? What do you do? You’re just going to keep getting the disc?”

Gilroy then went on to compare it to Marvel Studios’ recent box-office woes, indicating it’s a franchise too occupied with its macguffins:

“Trying to get the, what do they call it? I can’t remember the name of the box. What the f*** is the name of the box in The Avengers? What the f*** are they going for? […] The Tesseract! That’s why all those Marvel movies are all – that’s why they fail. You’re just constantly … if that’s all you’re doing, then all you’re doing is just trying to get the Tesseract.”

One criticism of the MCU has long been its over reliance on repetitive formula, one that audiences seem to be tiring of. “Thunderbolts” with its greater character focus seemed like a start to try and right the ship, but the box-office sadly didn’t seem to reflect it – almost a month into its run the film sits at a $335 million gross worldwide from a $180 million budget.

The post “Andor” Creator On Why Marvel Movies Fail appeared first on Dark Horizons.