Tony Gilroy isn’t crossing the picket line for Andor after all
Tony Gilroy's participation in the production of Andor's next season has been greatly exaggerated
Aux News Tony Gilroy
Considering how many people talk about Andor as not just great Star Wars but as great, subversive political art, it was disappointing to hear production on the series’ second season was continuing throughout the writers’ strike. But, to paraphrase another Star Wars show, this is not the way. Thankfully, after a weekend of rumors, showrunner Tony Gilroy set the record straight and announced that he discontinued all writing and all non-writing duties on the series.
“I discontinued all writing and writing-related work on Andor prior to midnight, May 1. After being briefed on the Saturday showrunner meeting, I informed Chris Keyser at the WGA on Sunday morning that I would also be ceasing all non-writing producing functions,” Gilroy said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Last week, Variety reported that Gilroy would continue on Andor’s next season in a producer capacity. However, as Deli Boys writer Abdullah Saeed noted, “this is scabbing.”
“This is scabbing,” Saeed posted on Instagram. “There’s no way a writer/producer can ‘finish’ writing and begin solely producing. And if the scripts truly are finished, let’s see ’em. If there’s one word different in the finished product, kick Tony Gilroy out of the WGA. One of the biggest writers in Hollywood could stand with his union and halt production on his hit show, thereby by forcing a major studio to consider WGA demands a little harder. Instead, he has chosen to be a SCAB! We all want Andor s2, but not at the cost of fairness to writers. #wgastrong”
Last week The Hollywood Reporter published a letter from Disney to showrunners in hopes of union-busting them back to set. However, the rules “prohibit hyphenates (members who are employed in dual capacities) from performing any writing services” during a work stoppage.
Andor isn’t the only major show losing its writer showrunners to the strike. Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power recently announced that co-showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay would not be staying in Middle-earth as long as the strike continues. Strangely enough, the studios could very easily stop this by paying writers what they’re owed and offering fair contracts to the people who make their most valuable products.
33 Comments
Seems like Abdullah Saeed could have waited a second and sought clarification on Gilroy’s situation before he publicly accused him of being a traitor to the union. That is not how you do solidarity my man!
Ummm. Yeah. Something went wrong here either by way of communication, rumors or possibly Tony Gilroy was initially waffling on how he would proceed (though his response seems to suggest he was fully striking from the beginning). I’m a little confused about the timing of all this. Variety wrote that he was continuing last week and then Tony responded this week that he had been striking from the beginning… Is that right? What was with the delay?
Also considering the Gilroy family’s politics, I highly doubt he’d waffle. Not that the kids couldn’t have different politics, but their dad was President of the Dramatists Guild ~50 years ago. Dan’s made a trilogy of films about how capitalism corrupts journalism, law, and art. And Tony did the not exactly corporate shill friendly Michael Clayton.
Agreed. And it’s cowardly he limited comments on his post (so basically it makes it look like his “call out” made Gilroy change his mind).
For the rest of human existence people will be saying, “Andor is one of the best things Star Wars ever did. Just make sure you only watch the first season.”
people*very online middle-aged dudes who are embarrassed to openly like a space wizard IP for kids and desperately want to be viewed as adults
Oh, it’s you with a comment like this. Figures. Maybe it’s just really well-crafted space fantasy, is that a possibility to you? You know, without all the extremely-online projection you like to go on about? No?Figures.
Are you misreading the article or are you assuming that production will continue without Gilroy and the writers?
According to this article, production is continuing without Gilroy and the writers.
I’m not seeing that
it was disappointing to hear production on the series’ second season was continuing throughout the writers’ strike. … showrunner Tony Gilroy set the record straight and announced that he discontinued all writing and all non-writing duties on the series.I discontinued all writing and writing-related work on Andor prior to midnight, May 1. After being briefed on the Saturday showrunner meeting, I informed Chris Keyser at the WGA on Sunday morning that I would also be ceasing all non-writing producing functionsThe article is saying Gilroy and the writers will not be involved. It doesn’t say anywhere that production will not continue.
It also doesn’t say anywhere that production will continue, and if they were replacing the showrunner with a scab that would be huge news.
It was previously reported that production would continue with Gilroy only performing producing duties. Now this article is correcting that report to explain that he is not involved at all. If production wasn’t continuing, I would think that would be explicitly stated, or that the story would be framed as “Writers Strike Halts Production on Andor.” Disney doesn’t have to replace Gilroy right away because his absence alone wouldn’t hold up production.
He’s still the showrunner, so it’s implied that production has stopped completely. Had he been removed as showrunner, the entire framing of the story would be radically different.
That’s not what it implies to me. The scripts are locked. They have other producers, the director, and LucasFilm executives to give creative input and bring the scripts they have to life. Just because he’s on strike doesn’t mean he’s removed. They could shut down, but they could keep going too. If production was halted, I don’t think the initial story about Andor continuing despite the strike would’ve made any sense.
I’m under the impression that Andor exists solely under Gilroy’s authority, so unless it’s stated that production continues without him, I will assume that production has stopped.
No, actually if production had stopped, that would have framed the story radically differently
But it was said that he finished the scripts, so it’s possible it could continue without him, inadvisable and shitty though that would be.The Shield finished up its final batch of episodes without Shawn Ryan at the producer helm, as he also stopped producing the show during the last strike. But he had already written the script(s), so production (and, presumably, post-production) went along without him.
That is not what the article says at all
So this means they’re going into production without Gilroy being involved, or that they’re halting production until the strike is resolved? That wasn’t exactly clear.
“Strangely enough, the studios could very easily stop this by paying writers what they’re owed and offering fair contracts to the people who make their most valuable products.”
Ah, so now you’re pretending to be on the side of the writers.
“And if the scripts truly are finished, let’s see ’em. If there’s one word different in the finished product,”does this person know how making a show works? unless your david fincher or something do you know how much a finished product and a finsihed script may differ?
That’s… his point? If the finished product is different from the script, “writing” has happened.
That’s his point. There’s no way the finished product will be the exact same as the finished script in which case some “writing” would be happening on the set, resulting in Tony Gilroy having not stuck with the strike and the union.
His “Let’s see ‘em” about the scripts was a bullshit ask, tho. He knows that’s never going to happen, and he sets Gilroy up to look like the villain if he doesn’t release them, thus opening Gilroy up to the Disney lawsuit to end all lawsuits.
I’m not in the WGA, but I would think it’s possible for Gilroy to submit scripts confidentially (and with Disney’s permission) to union management without releasing them publicly. Of course, Disney may not want that either.
That’s not totally correct. An actor can change a word in a line or improvise during a take without the showrunner’s consultation or approval. That’s not “writing.” That’s improvisation. Gilroy writing a new line himself would constitute scabbing, but an actor changing a word on the day is something that can absolutely happen without the showrunner being involved or even aware of it, so the whole “if one word is different” thing doesn’t actually stand up to scrutiny much.For the record, I stand with the WGA, as Tony Gilroy clearly does, too. But the writer who accused him of being a scab was irresponsible and was quick to throw out generalizations that clearly weren’t accurate on a number of levels. That’s the exact opposite of solidarity.
Yeah, he was a douche about it for sure.
That was his whole point. That the finished product would differ from the finished scripts. And therefore, Gilroy would be engaged in writing duties and therefore be scabbing.
When is Andor not Andor?
When it is Anjar!
Took me 20 minutes to figure out this joke. And it was…not worth it.
Pay them and then invest in proprietary AI to eventually replace them down the road. I mean hell, it’s already as good as a lot of shows. Lol.
“Strangely enough, the studios could very easily stop this by paying writers what they’re owed and offering fair contracts to the people who make their most valuable products.”
Oh, stop making sense!