Disney+ released the second three-episode arc of Andor this week. The series welcomed the return of another legacy character, Senator Bail Organa, but fans were surprised to see a different actor portraying the politician. Seasoned actor Jimmy Smits (NYPD Blue, The West Wing) originated the role, but Benjamin Bratt (Poker Face, Miss Congeniality) was recast for the series. Showrunner Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Identity, Michael Clayton) explained the reasoning behind the recasting.

In an interview with Collider, Gilroy detailed how scheduling issues ultimately trumped Smits’ ability to return.

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

Smits first appeared in the role of Organa in the prequel trilogy’s Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. He continued the role in Rogue One, and more recently, appeared in the live-action series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. As the franchise has revisited iconic characters throughout the timeline, they previously opted for CGI renderings such as Princess Leia in Rogue One and Mark Hamill’s (The King of Kings, Invincible) Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian. 

Premiering on April 22, Andor’s second season reunites fans with Diego Luna’s (Narcos: Mexico, Open Range) Cassian Andor, a lone resistance operative radicalized into joining the larger rebellion against the Empire. Picking up a year after season one, the second season tracks four years before the events of Rogue One, where Andor and other operatives secure the schematics of a new imperial weapon known as the Death Star.

Luna is joined by a star-studded cast including Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting, What Remains), Genevieve O’Reilly (The Dry, The Honorable Woman), Denise Gough (Robin Hood, The Stolen Girl), Adria Arjona (Father of the Bride, Morbius), Faye Marsay (Darkest Hour, Pride), and Kyle Soller (Anna Karenina, Fury).

The next three episodes of Andor arrive on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET only on Disney Plus.