Riz Ahmed Reveals Why He Wasn’t In Andor Season 2
“Much like Bodhi Rook, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for the greater cause.”
When showrunner Tony Gilroy revealed that Andor Season 2 would lead right into the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, fans of the 2016 film rightfully assumed there’d be more than just narrative overlap. And sure enough, the final season of the Disney+ show was a Rogue One reunion in more ways than one: a handful of characters from the film played major roles in Andor, bridging the gap between the film and the prequel series.
Still, some fan favorites were missing in action, like Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso. Gilroy has since explained why some Rogue One alums just couldn’t fit into the 12-episode season. “I realized if people didn’t absolutely have to be there, they shouldn’t,” he told Entertainment Weekly, adding that it’d have been “really disrespectful” to bring someone like Jyn back for mere fan service. “I’d rather honor Rogue and keep it straight.”
That practice extended even to characters like Riz Ahmed’s Bodhi Rook. Of all the members of Rogue One, his cameo might have been the easiest to justify. In the years leading up to Rogue One, Bodhi served as an Imperial pilot, only defecting a few days before the events of the film. Andor was never shy about depicting the inner workings of the Empire, so we could have seen him in his final days behind enemy lines. According to Ahmed himself, Gilroy even considered it briefly — but he ultimately changed his mind to keep Andor’s final season as straightforward as possible.
There was no room for Ahmed in Andor Season 2, but he’s still down for a “standalone Bodhi Rook movie.”
“I spoke to Tony Gilroy about this afterwards,” Ahmed tells Inverse while promoting his upcoming film Relay. “I was like, ‘Yeah, thanks a lot, bud. Everyone gets a cameo apart from your old pal, Riz.’ He was like, ‘Actually, I thought about it, but it would’ve thrown all the timeline off and it would’ve unpicked a lot of the plotting.’”
An appearance from Bodhi potentially could have worked, had Andor gotten a bit more time to explore the final four years of Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) life. Season 2 is mostly focused on the fall of the planet Ghorman and Andor’s rise through the ranks of the Galactic Rebellion, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for detours. Gilroy’s hesitation does make sense: with so little time to conclude its story, Andor did need to be picky about the storylines it explored.
“Much like Bodhi Rook, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for the greater cause here: the story-making sense,” Ahmed adds wryly.
The actor can next be seen on the big screen in Relay — but he wouldn’t say no to another chance to return to that galaxy far away. If Lucasfilm is ever down to make a “standalone Bodhi Rook movie,” Ahmed is ready to suit up again.
