Andor Filming Locations and Technique Unique for Star Wars Show

Money was the main reason why George Lucas couldn't make Star Wars TV shows. He didn't know how to make a show that looked like his movies, but for a fraction of the cost, which was the only way it would work for TV. The first three live-action Star Wars shows were able to figure out the problem, but the fourth is completely different.

The fourth show is Andor and it will debut on Disney+ in September. It begins at the beginning of the path that leads him to become the leader of the rebel group in the movie. The show was shot on practical sets and locations instead of using Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft. The author told Empire Magazine that they are old-school.

StageCraft was first used on The Mandalorian and has since been used on Obi-Wan and The Book of Boba Fett. It involves placing a huge circle of monitors on a sound stage with the ability to show any location in real time. You don't need to travel to distant mountaintops to film on distant mountaintops, they can be recreated in a studio in Los Angeles on these amazing monitors. Lucas dreamed of saving money.

That's not Andor. The first few images of the trailer show Andor shooting on distant mountaintops. We had to walk for hours up a mountain to get one shot. It was a huge effort. It's really dangerous to go there. You can't see anything else besides the sky, trees, rivers, and lakes. It's amazing. It was like being on a planet.

When Andor wasn't filming on location, it used fully realized sets for a major film production in the UK. "We didn't use StageCraft at all." The aim is to make Andor look different from all of the other Star Wars shows before it, but to make it fit in with the look of Andor's previous appearance inRogue One, which was also filmed on location and on sound stages.

Will the decision be worth it? The premiere of Andor will be on September 21.

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