The second chapter of Andor season 2 gave us plenty of hefty things to dig into, and one of them was something that very smartly looked forward to an element of Rogue One that has never been fully explained. The breathing mask that Saw Gerrera took blasts from was a striking thing to see, but in isolation perhaps felt more like a medical requirement, maybe a clunky asthma device but as season 2 has now revealed, it was rather more complicated than that as Tony Gilroy explains.
“The Saw Gerrera thing in Rogue, he has the mask and he’s huffing that thing all the time. And people always ask, ‘What is that?’” Gilroy notes. “I’m like, ‘I don’t really f—ing know what it is! What is it?’”
“Beau Willimon called me one night and goes, ‘Hey man, what if it’s this?'” says Gilroy.
“What’s the most valuable thing that Luthen could give to Saw? What if Luthen gave him a chance to steal fuel, wherever it was? What a gift to really seal that bond. So the idea was cool, and Beau came back and did all the first passes on that speech about rhydonium. It was a really cool idea.”