Star Wars boss defends controversial recasting

Star Wars Andor writer and showrunner Tony Gilroy has defended the recasting of Bail Organa, and for good reason.

If you’ve been watching Andor’s second season, you’ll have likely seen Bail Organa pop up in the last few episodes, as he does in several Star Wars projects; you just can’t seem to get rid of him.

Andor Season 2 is some of the best Star Wars we’ve seen so far, check it out below.

Eagle-eyed Star Wars fans will have noticed this isn’t the Bail we’ve seen before though, as the character has been played by Benjamin Bratt in the new series.

Usually Jimmy Smits plays the character as he did in the prequel series, but due to the actor being unavailable for Andor Season 2, the decision was made to recast instead, a good decision, in my opinion, as Bail is an important character and it’d be weird to not include him in such an important storyline.

Writer Tony Gilroy addressed the change, recently saying: “I put him in Episode 6 in an arbitrary way so people will get the conversation out of the way until the next week when he really starts to work.”

That plan worked a treat as when he made a brief appearance in the sixth episode, many fans expressed surprise and confusion as to why he had a new face.

Many fans are still disappointed though, as while most understand the reason for the recast being scheduling, many still think it’s sad that Jimmy Smits was unable to play the character again, especially in peak Star Wars content like Andor.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Benjamin Bratt move into the role permanently though as time goes on, especially if Disney is planning anymore shows or films set during the original trilogy.