Riz Ahmed was recently asked about the non-apperaance of Bodhi Rook in Andor season two, and while he clearly would have relished the chance to return as the ill-feted but incredibly brave Imperial pilot, he relayed what Tony Gilroy had told him regarding the decision to not include Bodhi, or indeed any of the other ‘missing’ characters from Rogue One.
“I spoke to [showrunner] Tony Gilroy about this afterwards,” Ahmed told Inverse. “I was like, ‘Yeah, thanks a lot, bud. Everyone gets a cameo apart from your old pal, Riz.’ He was like, ‘Actually, I thought about it, but it would’ve thrown all the timeline off and it would’ve unpicked a lot of the plotting.'”
“Much like Bodhi Rook, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for the greater cause here: the story making sense,” he added.
A shame, but a logical one, in much the same way as a cameo of Jynn Erso on Wobani would have been; cool, but unneccesary. Many fans have gone directly from Andor: A Star Wars Story on to Rogue One, following the shift of focus onto the Rogue One mission and it’s participants, and perhaps that’s the best way to introduce characters like Jynn, Bodhi, Baze and Chirrut. As Gilroy told Entertainment Weekly,
“In the end, I realized if people didn’t absolutely have to be there, they shouldn’t, and it would’ve been lame to bring Jyn back as a cameo. That would’ve been really disrespectful in a way. I’d rather honor Rogue and keep it straight.”
