Tony Gilroy, the creator and showrunner of Andor, attributes the recent decline of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies to repetitive narratives. In a recent interview, Gilroy highlighted what he believes are the reasons for the failure of Marvel movies, contrasting it with his approach to altering the scripts of Andor from their original forms.

Gilroy pointed out that the MCU movies often fail because they are repeatedly focused on “trying to get the Tesseract.” He explained that this constant pursuit of the same fictional object leads to a lack of originality and ultimately contributes to the movies' shortcomings. He questioned, “Trying to get the, what do they call it? I can’t remember the name of the box. What the f— is the name of the box in The Avengers? What the f— are they going for?” When reminded of the Tesseract, Gilroy affirmed, “That’s why all those Marvel movies are all — that’s why they fail. You’re just constantly … if that’s all you’re doing, then all you’re doing is just trying to get the Tesseract.”

Gilroy's criticism aligns with common sentiments that Marvel movies often follow a predictable formula, which has been linked to the critical and commercial disappointments of several recent franchise entries. His remarks come in the context of explaining how Andor differs significantly from previous renditions of similar stories.

The initial scripts of Andor reportedly revolved around Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna, and K-2SO, portrayed by Alan Tudyk, embarking on new adventures across the galaxy in each episode. Gilroy, upon joining the project, changed this approach, delaying the introduction of K-2SO until later in the series. “That’s something I always intended,” he told /Film.

Gilroy noted that while earlier versions of the scripts were “slick” and “interesting,” they suffered from a “fatal flaw.” He elaborated, “It seemed to me, which is if that’s your show, that we’re going to storm the Citadel in the pilot, what are you going to do in episode 9? What do you do?”

Andor Season 2 concluded on May 13, 2025. The original reporting was done by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.