As the Star Wars universe has expanded exponentially in the past five years, it’s especially been a joy to meet other droids of all walks of life as they assist or disarm the various characters we’ve met in the franchise. Although Taika Waititi’s IG-11 may be giving him a run for his Imperial credits, Rogue One’s K-2SO is also a favorite, played by Firefly’s immensely talented Alan Tudyk. The actor and voice talent is one of the sassier droids in the galaxy and an absolute highlight of Gareth Edwards’ spinoff, which as actually proved to be a somewhat "tricky" experience for Tudyk.
Since Star Wars is so beloved to so many people, it’s not an easy task Disney has taken upon itself by building the series out beyond the Skywalkers. But Rogue One was an early indication that audiences welcome new adventures and characters to fill in the timeline gaps or create new ones. Alan Tudyk talked more about the making of the film with these words:
I definitely look back on it fondly. It was a challenge, in that the script was changing at a certain point.... There was a certain point early on where the story shifted. A new writer was brought in and things were changed. And so, I had met Jyn Erso’s character one way, and they even used it in the trailers where I say, ‘Hello, Cassian said you are a friend. I will not kill you.’ And people, when I would go to Comic-Cons would say, ‘Could you write that?’ I’m like, ‘It’s not in the movie, that quote!’ It was just an early version of how I met Jyn Erso. So things changed.We were on set and we’d be like, ‘Ok so this scene is after we’ve met? Or before? Oh, we just met in a new scene that happened.’ So that’s tough. That’s tricky. That can shake your faith.
Star Wars films have grown more complicated these days with Disney’s hands more actively in the mix to keep the machine rolling and on the up-and-up with fans. Fans were initially worried about some behind-the-scenes reshoots for Rogue One that were completed following the film’s principal photography, done largely by Tony Gilroy instead of Gareth Edwards.
Tudyk told Collider the tricky part was when the trailers didn’t reflect scenes that were kept in the film, and he also talked about how important of a director Gareth Edwards was to the film and his character:
But in working with Gareth Edwards, I love working with him. And Diego Luna is a lot of fun. There were a lot of pictures on set, like from on set, pictures that I got to see, and there’s a lot of me and Diego, and I’m laughing. I’m just laughing my ass off a lot. And we went to Maldives! ... And we went to Jordan! So we were flying all these places before they had built the thing they built for Mandalorian, where you go to Long Beach and you can be anywhere! You’re surrounded by all those screens. We were actually flying to places and doing the whole filmmaking thing, and waking up at whatever time in the morning to hook up with some Bedouins so they could take us to this one place that we could overlook to see Jedi. Seeing Stormtroopers on actual camels, and they’re like, 'Eh, we’re gonna fix the camels later!' That stuff was magic, man. Magic.
It sounds like a really incredible experience. What’s great about Alan Tudyk’s role is he did get to be on set and play off Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor and the rest of the cast, even though CGI chiefly brought the droid to life. The cast has likened working on that movie to what George Lucas would have done with a lot of palpable sets. Felicity Jones called the experience “visceral” and “naturalistic” while recently reflecting on it herself.
As of right now though, Alan Tudyk's K-2SO is not expected to be part of the upcoming television follow-up to Rogue One that will see Diego Luna reprise his role as Cassian Andor for Andor. That show is set to follow the character’s life before the events of the 2016 film. The Disney+ series is expected to begin streaming in 2022, alongside a ton more Star Wars reaching the platform in the near future.
