Let’s get right to the final twist: So Bix knew she was pregnant with Cassian’s child when she left Yavin, right?
I think that’s a way to play it. I wouldn’t argue against that. I think that Adria [Arjona] went for that [in her performance]. I don’t know the math exactly, but one would think that would have something to do with it. Yeah.
I did not see it coming and I thought it was clever. But if people start thinking, “Hey, now we can have a Son of Andor spin-off show set 30 years later” — because that’s how people tend to think about Star Wars — are they missing the point?
I want to be hopeful at the end. I want to finish on something positive. Rebellions are built on hope. I want to honor the people that have sacrificed all the way through the whole show. And at the same time, if I can do that and give Disney a reason for being happy about going forward and not ending on a bummer, why not?
It just felt like sometimes things that are a little bit of a grab are also organic and it just felt like we checked ourselves: Are we being too cheesy? But we earned it. I think we really earned it. And the tipping point was really realizing, as you said before, if that’s in her head, if she knows she’s pregnant, how much that helps tip that decision to leave.
People were wondering if and how the Force would come into the show. And with the Force healer who sort of reads Cassian’s fortune, you found a way to incorporate it and also to introduce this idea of destiny. The way I read it, that idea of making sure Cassian fulfilled his destiny was key to Bix’s decision.
Totally, yeah.
So it seemed pretty elegant. How did that come together and what was your thinking there?
Exactly as you said. I wanted her to leave. I thought about killing her in different ways, but I wanted her to leave. And I would’ve been disappointed if we didn’t have some aspect of the Force. I would’ve been disappointed if we’d have these conversations that we’d have with the show coming out where I’d completely ignored something that was so important to so many people and was such a baked-in part of the world.
So when it came together the whole destiny aspect of it began to get really attractive. I thought, why shouldn’t it be destiny? He’s at Aldhani, he’s at Narkina. What’s he been through — why is he still alive? It’s amazing. What’s saving him? What is this about? And what’s the least cheesy way I can get at that?
And if it was me, wouldn’t you be afraid? The reluctance about destiny is just as fascinating as the acceptance of it in a way. And his fear of it, his reluctance about it, and then in the end, the fact that it takes the person he loves the most away from him. We had to get to a place where it felt legit to everybody that she would leave. And I think we finally found an emotional truth as we went through it. There were a lot of conversations.