Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy explains that shocking season 2 death: “It’s so elementally Greek and dramatic”

We’re now two-thirds of our way through the final (or should that be second?) chapter of Andor’s story, and this week suffered a major casualty (although we’d accept some not really calling it that) following the loss of Kyle Soller’s Syril Karn. As the Ghorman massacre began to unfurl, Syril’s dream almost came true when he found himself face-to-face with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), only for his longtime nemesis to have no idea who he was. The shock was too much for the Empire desk weasel to comprehend before he was shot and killed by Ghorman local, Carro Rylanz (Richard Sammel). According to showrunner Tony Gilroy, it was a fitting end to a character that had spent so long trying to make an impact in the galaxy, not even being a blip on our hero’s radar.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the character’s exit, Gilroy broke it all down. “It’s so elementally Greek and dramatic that the thing that you’ve based your life on doesn’t even recognize you,” explained the showrunner. “Everything that he’s constructed for himself doesn’t even have any awareness of him. I think he’s just stunned. He can’t even breathe at that point. There’s the guy that ruined my life that I was chasing for four years, and I’ll be like this raccoon in a relentless fight, and I’ll be able to kill him. And then, oh my God, he doesn’t even know who I am! It seemed like the absolute essential summation of poor Syril’s life.”