There have repeatedly been reports about Andor season 1 and 2 costing Disney upwards of $645 million to produce. However, that's such an insane figure for a streaming series, no one could quite believe it was real.
While the Star Wars TV series has been a critical hit, it's never really broken any viewership records that we're aware of. Cassian Andor is a popular character, but Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released nearly a decade ago, and with no Jedi and few familiar faces, Andor isn't a series with much widespread appeal.
Talking at the ATX Television Festival (via SFFGazette.com), Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy reflected on how Cassian's war with the Empire has resonated with people.
"It’s really sad how many people can find a place to put this [word] in some place that’s meaningful for them," he said. "And, you know, I’ve been allowed to start using the word 'fascism' the last couple weeks. That’s liberating."
"But I don’t think it should be any surprise or even be too slippery or complicated for people to understand the road I have to walk to do all this; to maximize the audience and protect the investment of a really brave [company]," Gilroy continued. "I mean, [for] Disney this is $650 million. For 24 episodes, I never took a note."
He added, "We said 'F*** the Empire’ in the first season, and they said, 'Can you please not do that?' In Season 2, they said, 'Streaming is dead, we don’t have the money we had before,' so we fought hard about money, but they never cleaned anything up. That [freedom] comes with responsibilities."
"But it is sad how many people can find a place to put 'genocide' into their vocabulary. I don’t think you need me to say anything else, do you?"
There are a few key takeaways here. Not only was Andor a bigger-than-expected 24-episode investment for Disney and Lucasfilm, but if the House of Mouse truly believes "streaming is dead," that's a troubling sign about where things stand with these platforms.
In recent years, the market has been saturated with streamers, forcing consumers to be selective with which they choose to subscribe to. However, many of these companies have realised that spending huge amounts of money on content doesn't pay off, which is why most have reverted to a traditional TV model with commercials (and, if you don't want to see them, the monthly cost is more).
Bob Chapek threw a huge amount of money into Disney+, flooding it with content; that approach led to Disney losing a lot of money. Bob Iger's return changed things, and it's apparent now that we're not going to get the same level of big budget fare moving forward. That's partly why the Moana TV series became Moana 2, and Lilo & Stitch was released in theaters.
Was Andor a bad investment? Well, that depends on how much of a streaming draw it's been, and only Disney has access to that data. However, it's not a show that's generated much in the way of merchandise, meaning recouping that $650 million investment will be easier said than done.