‘Andor’ creator Tony Gilroy explains that character death in episode 6

Rebellions have casualties, and there was a big one on episode 6 of Andor’s second season.

Luthen Rael lost one of his most loyal soldiers, and to make matters even worse, it was due to friendly — and careless — fire. Cinta Kaz (Verada Sethu) was struck down by a stray blaster bolt. Making matters even worse, it was right after she had reconnected romantically with girlfriend Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay).

The tragedy did not end there. Vel and Cinta had both been sent to Ghorman by Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) to help the rebels raid an imperial transport. But the agitators they were working with there were green and inexperienced. Vel told one wannabe revolutionary named Samm (Abraham Wapler) not to bring a blaster, but he didn’t listen, and when another person refused to leave the scene, the gun went off, striking Cinta down.

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As if mourning the loss of her loved one was not hard enough, Vel then had to see the man who did not listen to her and ended up accidently killing Cinta crying in remorse. “I’m not going to say ‘remember this’ because I don’t have to,” she lit into Samm. “This is on you now. This is like skin. You’re taking her with you wherever you go for the rest of your useless life.”

Seeing as how Sethu was recently cast as the Doctor’s companion on the new season of Doctor Who and only appeared briefly in one season 2 scene before episode 6 (driving poor Tay Kolma to his death), one could wonder if Cinta was killed off due to her new job (another scheduling snafu with Jimmy Smits necessitated the recasting of the Bail Organa character, now played by Banjamin Bratt). But Andor creator Tony Gilroy insists Cinta’s death had nothing to do with Sethu’s new Doctor Who gig, and was purely a story decision.

“It was totally story, and the tragedy of them getting back together.” Gilroy says. “I mean, it’s the same thing with [actor] Joplin Siptain and Brasso — there has to be a cost as we go.”

That doesn’t mean the creator enjoys putting these wheels into motion: “It’s easy to write, but they are hard phone calls to make when you call the actor.”

For that reason, Gilroy has always tried to give his cast as much advance notice of an impending demise as possible — unlike other shows with notoriously high kill counts like The Sopranos, where actors often found out by reading it in their script. “The David Chase system is terrifying to me,” Gilroy says, shaking his head. “The idea of sitting at a table read and people going, ‘Oh my God, I’m dead!’ I don’t know if I’m more highly evolved or more terrified, but I couldn’t do it that way.”

And the emotional repercussions of Cinta’s death could be read all over a grieving Vel’s face as she commanded Samm: “Don’t you dare cry.… You’ll make up for this forever.”

“I just love Faye Marsay,” gushes Gilroy. “I don’t know if you’ve seen Adolescence, but she’s in that and she was in Game of Thrones and she’s just the most simple, straightforward, no bulls— actor. I did it as much for her as I did for anything else. I wanted to add some luggage for her, and that seemed the way to do it.”

Even if it meant sacrificing Cinta in the process.