Alan Tudyk says that K-2SO will not be in the first season of Andor, but will be in the show later on

A new Star Wars series, Andor, is currently filming right now, a story set as a prequel to Rogue One that centers around Rebel spy Cassian Andor.

The show stars Diego Luna reprising the role of Cassian, alongside newcomers Stellan Skarsgard, Denise Gough, and Kyle Soller. Genevieve O’Reilly also returns to the franchise, reprising the role of Rebellion leader Mon Mothma. But there’s another familiar member of the cast that Lucasfilm President Kathy Kennedy had previously said would be returning: Alan Tudyk as Cassian’s loyal and lovable droid companion K-2SO.

During a Disney+ promotional event in April 2019, Kennedy revealed that Tudyk would return in the series. Since then, however, he has been curiously absent from any casting announcements or promotional material, and since things change quickly in this industry (especially with the COVID-19 pandemic altering schedules), is that still the case?

Tudyk cleared that up in a recent interview with Collider while promoting his new series, Resident Alien: he will not be in the first season, but will be in the show later on.

“They’re shooting it right now, I’m not in it,” Tudyk said of Andor. “But, if it stays on the air, stories keep getting told, I’ll end up in there.” But he later said it much more confidently than that. “I’m going to be in the show,” he explained. “It’s just that the story that Tony [Gilroy] is telling doesn’t involve K-2SO until later on… I can’t be too specific, but I can definitely say that I’m not going to be in the first season.”

This tells us a couple of things:

First, and most significantly, it’s continued confirmation that he’ll be in the show, and it sounds like it’s more than just the wishful thinking we typically hear from Star Wars actors and instead is the confident knowledge that it’s actually going to happen. We hear all sorts of Star Wars actors talk about how they hope they’ll return, but rarely do we hear someone talk with the confidence of Tudyk in these statements. So yeah, he’s going to be in the show!

Second, however, is that he won’t show up in the first season. This means that the first season will likely focus on Cassian Andor’s time in the Rebellion before meeting the droid, and it might be better that way. If this really is a series centered around Andor, it is probably best to establish his character from the start before bringing in a bunch of others. In a way, that’s what The Mandalorian did with Din Djarin in season one, before bringing in a bunch of familiar characters in season two. I don’t expect it to that degree with Andor, but it’s probably the same general principle of wanting to start with a narrower focus on the protagonist.

And third, it shouldn’t be overlooked that this is apparent confirmation that the show will run for multiple seasons. This shouldn’t be surprising, as that’s what we all assumed, but this distinguishes the show from others, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, which will be a limited series run. That’s pretty exciting.

So to wrap things up, it sounds like Andor will be a multi-season story that begins with Cassian in season one but introduces K-2SO down the road, possibly (probably?) in season two.