He also chose not to include characters who would not organically occur in this part of the story. Obvious examples would include Palpatine, Jyn and Galen Erso, characters from Rebels, or Leia. 

But I’m equally impressed with the way he did bring in the legacy characters. Saw in Season 1 was introduced without fanfare, and his inclusion in the series wasn’t kept as a distracting surprise but was obvious from the trailer. Ditto for Krennic in season 2: not only was he in the trailer, he was also introduced in the very first episode. So he becomes a fully developed character rather than an example of “fan service”. 

Gilroy was expecting to “have to” bring in a few characters but it’s easier on the budget not to hire someone for just a single scene - so he decided against an inclusion of Cassian’s contact Tivik (Daniel Mays). He was also unable to get a few characters that he did want because of scheduling conflicts and this is where the clever structure of s2 works to his advantage. Two key personnel on Yavin  - Dodonna and Merrick - are mentioned in the dialogue as being “back tomorrow night” to explain their absence for what is just the two days we see in eps 11-12. 

Bail Organa was, however, considered an essential character to include for the Ghorman massacre arc and as Jimmy Smits was unavailable Gilroy proceeded with a recast:  Benjamin Bratt. But instead of having his first appearance straight into the drama of ep 9, where it might have been distracting, it comes instead in a minor scene at Sculden’s party - set a year before and released a week before. Therefore, people are used to the recast by the time the character becomes important (Gilroy probably wasn’t expecting it to be just a week but the three episodes at a time drop was not his decision). 

Having said all that, is there a character you would have liked to see, even if briefly? Or did Gilroy get it right ? 

(Quote is from The Hollywood Reporter )

I appreciate Gilroy’s attitude towards pre-existing characters