No matter who you ask, every Star Wars fan has heard of Coruscant. Considered the Jewel of the Core Worlds, Coruscant is where many of the galaxy-changing events of the prequels occurred, such as Anakin Skywalker’s descent into becoming the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader, and Queen Padmé Amidala’s motion of no confidence in the senate that would set the stage for Palpatine’s rise to power.
With so much history having unfolded on Coruscant, Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy knew he would need to put his own spin on the city-planet while keeping it grounded in a way that suited his storytelling style, all while keeping it recognizable to fans. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many London locations had to be adapted — such as the Adams Plaza Bridge at Canary Wharf station for the ISB building exterior, as well as the brutalist Barbican Estate for the secret meeting between Vel Sartha and Kleya Marki.
However, thanks to Abrams Books recently releasing The Art of Andor by Phil Szostak, the official behind-the-scenes companion book for the Star Wars series, we now know even more about Coruscant and its impact on Andor‘s design, story, and the characters that spent most of their time there.
1
Tony Gilroy wanted Coruscant to be the Anti-Marvel
There’s been a lot of anti-Marvel sentiment kicking around lately, ranging from disparagement of superhero films in general to criticism of Marvel’s handling of dialogue. It seems even Gilroy has an axe to grind with the MCU. He’s explicitly noted that he designed Coruscant’s aesthetic to be “non-Marvel.”
In a design manifesto written in November 2019, now shared in The Art of Andor, Gilroy wrote the following:
“How do we take that aesthetic I was talking about on page one and deliver that to an environment like this that’s gonna constantly want to pull you in a cheesy direction? I’d need The Lower Depths and High Society. I’d want non-Marvel funk and non-soapy, wealth-porn slick. I’d want it vibrant but blemished. Crazy, credible, and fascinating.”
It’s unclear what precisely “non-Marvel funk” means, but Mohen Leo, an Industrial Light and Magic VFX supervisor, would later describe Gilroy and his philosophy for Coruscant (and all other locations) as including only Star Wars elements that furthered the story and characters. Anything that detracted from that was removed, leaving a clear, cohesive vision that was as far from “funk” as humanly possible.
2
The location of the Fondor Haulcraft
We spend a lot of time in Luthen Rael’s gallery in both seasons of Andor, though not as much time on the exterior. However, according to production designer Luke Hull, there was a time when viewers would finally have had the chance to see what was behind Luthen’s gallery in much more detail.
Fans know that Luthen is able to get around quickly thanks to his ship, the Fondor Haulcraft. However, where Luthen kept the Fondor was never revealed, though fans (us included) suspected it had to be nearby so Luthen could access it so easily. Thanks to The Art of Andor, we now know exactly where the ship is kept: at the back of Luthen’s gallery.
Hull designed the Fondor with folding wings both to reflect Luthen’s secretive nature and to allow the ship to fit in tight spaces. One such place was the docking bay behind the gallery, which was never shown in Andor.
“It’s like a big ring donut, you land through it, then the wings come down, and you pull into your space,” Hull explains in the Coruscant chapter of the book. “The idea was that you could then walk off the ramp and go into the back of the gallery. We never shot that, for obvious reasons — super expensive — but it would have been a really cool way of getting to the gallery.”
3
Dedra’s apartment
We know from previous Star Wars media — like 2008’s animated sensation The Clone Wars — that class is usually represented on Coruscant through access to commodities like light. The lower you get in Coruscant’s multi-levels, the harder it is to access. Light becomes exclusive to the upper echelons of Coruscant society. Think Mon Mothma and her family apartment, or other locations like the Senate and Luthen’s gallery.
This is what makes the discovery about Dedra Meero’s apartment, which we first see in Andor season 2, so interesting. As Hull describes it, Dedra’s apartment is “government-supplied” — which gives her the opportunity to look down on the dregs of society she believes are beneath her.
“She’s not the kind of person who would necessarily put a lot of homey touches to it,” Hull explains in the Coruscant chapter of the companion book. “It’s a little bit like if you worked for the KGB; they’d give you an apartment in an apartment block that’s probably bugged.”
4
The Axis safehouse
Compared to Dedra’s apartment, which has white walls with zero personality, the Axis safehouse is meant to have a slightly run-down, lower-middle-class vibe, even though it’s in an upper-working-class area. There’s a grungy vibe to it that contrasts perfectly with Dedra’s more polished apartment.
“It’s been squatted in, as well,” Rebecca Alleyway, Andor’s set decorator, explains. “It’s a rental, so it was worn and torn.”
The crew would add touches to the safehouse as it changed from Cassian and Bix’s time in it during the second arc of season 2, through to Kleya’s eventual rescue from it in later arcs. According to Gilroy, it was vital for the safehouse to become its own character.
“As a character, I think the safe house, what it goes through, and what it looks like, and how it plays all the way through, and what it says, is as strong as any character in the show,” Gilroy explains in the Coruscant chapter. “And that’s Luke. That’s Rebecca. That’s all the scenic [crew]. It’s the DPs coming in really getting with the storyline. And it’s everybody getting on board. Okay, let’s tell the story of a poor, sad apartment and what that apartment means to the show.”
The Art of Andor is now available to own