The previous set piece was the heist. And one thing that this show does that’s never been even discussed before in the Star Wars saga is focus on funding the Rebellion. It drives multiple plot points of the show. It’s such an obvious driver of the story, except no one’s ever done it before, so it can’t be that obvious. How did you get there?

This goes directly back to what I said before. Literally, I’m the classic old white guy who just can’t get enough history. The last 15 years, I’ve been reading all non-fiction. There’s an amazing book called Young Stalin [by Simon Sebag Montefiore].

The opening chapter is this incredible [potential] movie sequence where Stalin is part of staging a major bank robbery in a Georgian town in 1907. It involves 15 people and hookers and teamsters and all these things. Stalin was Lenin’s financier. He was a thief. And the reason Lenin loved him so much was he kept bringing the money. They needed money. This shit all costs money. People gotta eat, they gotta get guns. You gotta get stuff.

It’s knowing that and wanting to say something about that. Almost no one ever pays attention to that part of it. It’s an underutilized area of storytelling. I’m always obsessed with what my characters make and where they’re getting their money.

If you look at a picture of Young Stalin, isn’t he glamorous? He looks like Diego! We’re not doing [the] Stalin show. But, it’s fascinating. All through every revolution, it’s the same thing. It takes coin. Look at Exodus, where they’re trying to get money for Palestine.