Why Jimmy Smits couldn’t return as Bail Organa in Andor Season 2

Bail Organa makes a cameo appearance in Andor Season 2, but the actor who plays the classic Star Wars character is different, as showrunner Tony Gilroy has explained.

Senator Bail Organa is a key character in Star Wars history. As a representative of his home planet of Alderaan, Organa was elected to the Galactic Senate, where he worked tirelessly to counter the authoritarian efforts of Chancellor Palpatine.

Once Anakin Skywalker fell to the Dark Side and Padmé Amidala died, he adopted their daughter Leia and raised her as his own.

Organa appeared in the prequel trilogy, where he was played by LA Law and West Wing star Jimmy Smits, but another actor takes on the role in Andor.

Why Benjamin Bratt replaced Jimmy Smits in Andor

Bail Organa briefly appears during Season 2 of Andor, where he’s played by Benjamin Bratt. That’s because Jimmy Smits couldn’t participate for scheduling reasons.

“Bringing back the legacy characters is always a complicated process between money and scheduling and territory and everything else,” showrunner Tony Gilroy told Collider.

“Obviously, in a perfect world, he would come back. They just couldn’t put it together. He was doing a television series that was peaking at that point in time, and it just couldn’t work out. Finally, we have to have him because we have to. You have to have him. Ben was such a brilliant get as a replacement.”

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Organa appears midway through Episode 6 of Season 2, when he greets Mon Mothma while departing from an ‘Investiture Party.’

“You’re family now,” he tells Mothma, driving home the fact that they are on the same side. “You’re in for the show. Good luck with it.”

For more Star Wars, here’s what time Andor Season 2 drops, everything we know about Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter, plus all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows.