Star Wars has been known to recast roles from time to time, and the latest example of this came in Andor Season 2, which concluded its run on the 2025 TV schedule just a few days ago. The season’s sixth episode, titled “What a Festive Evening,” saw Bail Organa finally appearing on the series, only instead of Jimmy Smits reprising him, Benjamin Bratt was now playing the character. It turns out, however, that Bratt pitched having Bail appear earlier in Andor, and it would’ve been great to see this pulled off.
During an interview with EW, Benjamin Bratt shared how he’d heard Andor creator Tony Gilroy used the word “eager” to describe his approach to joining the cast and his work. The actor agreed with this description, to the point that after making friends with “Al” (presumably Alistair Petrie, who reprised his Rogue One role of General Draven) and Genevieve O’Reilly, who plays Mon Mothma, he pitched having Bail Organa appear during the wedding sequence in “Harvest.” That sequence was going to be shot “at the end of the schedule,” and therein lied the problem, with Bratt saying:
I said, ‘I know you've done this clever little reveal for Bail in episode 6, and we've already shot that and it's very effective, but it can still work in the story though. Should we not contemplate that I have this deep and long-term friendship with my fellow senator, Mon? I mean, doesn't it make sense that I would be at the wedding showing up with a gift?’ He said, ‘I love your enthusiasm, but it's a very expensive idea. It's far too late for that.’
There was a lot going during the reception that followed the wedding between Leida Mothma and Stekan Sculdun, from Mon’s drunken dance sequence to Luthen Rael deciding that Tay Kola needed to be killed. Still, given how close Mon and Bail Organa were, I agree with Benjamin Bratt it would have made sense for the latter to be present at this special occasion. Even with his duties as the senator of Alderaan keeping busy, surely he would’ve made time to show up, right?
Alas, there just wasn’t any financially feasible way to squeeze Bratt into Andor Season 2’s third episode, and I can also understand where Tony Gilroy was coming from. From needing to carve out time in Bratt’s schedule so he could shoot the sequence and adjusting his contract for the Star Wars show, needing to rewrite that portion of “Harvest” to accomodate Bail Organa, this just couldn’t be done. So either Bail really was too busy to appear at the wedding, or you can just imagine that he was present for it, we just never saw him onscreen.
It’s hard to say if we’ll see Bail Organa in any upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows. And if he does, will Benjamin Bratt continue to inhabit the role or will Jimmy Smits take it back? For now, those interested in continuing to follow along with Bail should check out the recently-released The Mask of Fear, the first book in the Star Wars: Reign of the Empire trilogy.
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