'Andor' showrunner Tony Gilroy explains how the Force just awakened

Whether you love the two-season Rogue One prequel Andor (we do) or hate it, one thing has so far distinguished it from all other Star Wars filmed entertainment. Not one single Force user is present in this increasingly dark story of the Dark Times. The Empire is ascendant, the Rebellion is threadbare, and years after the Emperor's Order 66 wiped out the Jedi, Force users are a myth. Right?

Wrong, as we discovered in Andor season 2, episode 7, "Messenger." After another BBY time jump, we find Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his girlfriend Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) on the planet Yavin 4, where Rebel forces are assembling and organizing for the events of Rogue One and the original Star Wars. Cassian has a nasty wound on his back, so Bix takes him to see a "Force healer" who works as a cook in the kitchens.

Cassian is highly skeptical, but not only does the unnamed Force healer (Josie Walker) fix his wound, she sees his future. Nothing precise, no looming Death Star or the plans for it that Cassian will help transmit just before his death, but a clear sense of his destiny — that he's a "messenger" who has "some place he needs to be." The healer is knocked back by the experience, the clearest vision of the Force she's seen in years.

How much is the Force with Andor?

The Force "is not pervasive" at this point in the galaxy's history, creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy told Mashable. He discovered as much when he asked Lucasfilm Story Group, the keepers of Star Wars canon, a series of questions on the topic. "How many beings are aware of the Force? Almost none. It's such a rarified, small segment, but I would have felt wrong if I didn't have it, and it fit.

"As I rolled into the second season, I realized that destiny was really such a huge part of what made Cassian special, and the idea of reluctant destiny is always fascinating, right? I mean, we have some religions based on that."

Gilroy confirmed the Force healer is no Jedi, and that she means everything she says: "She has no game." He compared her character to the character played by Whoopi Goldberg in the 1990 Patrick Swayze movie Ghost — a "flim-flam psychic" who suddenly has a genuine experience of Swayze's character in the beyond.

That idea made the scene "palatable to me," Gilroy said. "She thanks him because she hasn't felt it in a long time... That made it real, that makes it more powerful."

The meeting with the healer did one more thing for Andor — it took Bix off the board. We know she isn't in Rogue One, and many fans feared that meant she would die during the show. "Maybe you're the place he needs to be," the healer tells Bix. The next day, Bix takes off for another world, leaving a message for Cassian implying that they'll be together when his vital work for the growing Rebellion is over.

We know they won't be, heartbreakingly. But at least we do know why mystical phrases such as "may the Force be with you" — first uttered by the background character General Dodonna in the Yavin 4 briefing room in Star Wars — started to take root within the Rebellion.

Andor Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes every Tuesday.