In Rogue One, Cassian took on the mission to assassinate Galen Erso but chose not to carry it out. This pivot moment crystalizes the team that will travel to Scarif to steal the Death Star plans. Yet, Cassian had a chance to shoot Director Krennic back on Eadu. Why didn’t he carry that out? Two primary reasons are that Galen was the main target and nobody knew about Krennic and his role with the Death Star.
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Galen Erso Was the Main Target
As fans indicate here, Galen Erso was the main and more significant target. Hence, Cassian focused on shooting him, not Krennic. “Galen is the actual person with the science and the knowledge to lead the development” of the Death Star. In comparison, Krennic was “simply the ‘director’” or perhaps “a pencil pusher” who was not that important.
As such, Cassian only thought about the mission and killing Galen. Since Galen was the primary target, Cassian was too absorbed with both potentially killing him and the decision not to do so.
Cassian became immersed in this fork in the road at Eadu, or as this video highlights, he reached “a personal turning point” by choosing not to shoot Galen. If we follow this reasoning, Cassian was too absorbed in his “internal conflict” to think about shooting at Krennic. He could only determine whether or not to shoot Galen.
Collectively, Cassian had doubts about the mission at the onset and came to a turning point as he had Galen in his sights. It took all of Cassian’s attention to determine not to shoot Galen, leaving Krennic out of the picture.
Nobody New About Krennic
Another line of explanation from the above Reddit discussion is that Luthen knew who Krennic was “but didn’t know he was the project lead” on the Death Star. Accordingly, if Luthen didn’t know about what Krennic was really doing, “it’s not likely anyone else in the Rebel Alliance knew.”
So, Cassian wouldn’t have known to shoot at Krennic, at least as a priority item. He may have thought it would help to shoot Krennic because he was an Imperial officer, but it wasn’t vital to the mission. Moreover, Cassian was trying to follow his orders, although he ended up abandoning them.
A post on this older discussion board conveys how Cassian was “sent to kill Erso, not Krennic,” coinciding with the first reason above and the idea of following orders, and how Cassian didn’t know about Krennic. Given Krennic’s role, that makes sense.
Krennic was director of the Department of Advanced Weapons Research and rested under Imperial Intelligence, a more secretive espionage-driven wing of the Empire. His work was not broadcast around the galaxy. It would have been difficult for the Rebels to find out what he was really doing, as reflected in the secrecy of the Death Star itself.
Project Stardust was top secret and Krennic sought to keep it and himself hidden from view, including from Cassian Andor. Galen Erso, in contrast, was well known to the Rebels as a scientist who supported the Imperial regime. When Cassian went on his mission, they were not aware that Galen was only pretending to be “an obedient Imperial stooge,” all the while installing a means to undermine the Death Star.
Could Cassian Have Known About Krennic?
On the other hand, we could see how Cassian could have learned about Krennic’s role and should have taken a shot at him.
A post here indicates that Cassian could have pieced together how central Krennic was from the information Jyn Erso provided. At the minimum, Cassian “should have concluded that Krennic had learned about the messenger,” Bodhi Rook, who Galen had sent with the message about the Death Star’s weakness.
Hence, Cassian would have known Krennic would torture Galen to find out about him and the actual message and would want to stop that from happening.
While Cassian had his revelation about Galen and not shooting him, he could have refocused and fired at Krennic. It was a brief window before the Rebel fighters arrived, but Cassian could have come to realize that taking out Krennic would be a great benefit.
With the completion of Season 2 of Andor, articles like this one have reevaluated Cassian as a character and the pivotal scene not to shoot Galen. As Cassian saw Galen put himself “in front of the firing squad” and admit he is the mole, this heroism helped prompt Cassian not to shoot him. At that moment, Cassian could have shifted his weapon to fire on Krennic. Yet, that would have been a long shot, figuratively and literally.
Cassian Didn’t Shoot Krennic
Although we can see how Cassian could have decided to shoot Krennic, the reasons why he didn’t are justifiable and more defensible. Galen was the primary target, not Krennic. In connection, deciding not to shoot Galen took all of Cassian’s concentration. We can also see how not many Rebels knew about Krennic and his particular role with the Death Star.