Andor’s Epic Finale Speech Was Originally Way Different
The explosive season finale of Andor aired this past week to the tune of an epic funeral-turned-battle, an impassioned holographic call to action, and a post-credits reveal that the death star is on the way. Denise Gough, who plays the menacing series antagonist Dedra Meero, sat down with, with Empire ironically enough, to discuss how Maarva Andor’s final words came to be, explaining “Fiona’s voice was over all of us, except, at the end, she didn’t say ‘Fight the Empire!’ She said ‘Fuck the Empire!’ which we were all really excited about. But we weren’t allowed to keep it, obviously.”
Star Wars: Andor became an instant smash hit upon its arrival, pleasing fans and critics alike while displaying that there’s still so much more of the galaxy far away worth exploring. The Disney+ show has garnered a quick reputation for breaking boundaries and smashing barriers while taking a bold new approach to the universe of Star Wars. According to Denise Gough, when she told series showrunner Tony Gilroy about her lack of Star Wars expertise, even revealing she couldn’t differentiate between the George Lucas opus and Star Trek, a cardinal sin in movie nerd speak, Gilroy reportedly responded in kind, saying that he didn’t have much Star Wars knowledge either.
Despite being the writer of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and creating a runaway hit in Andor, Tony Gilroy is arguably most known for writing the Matt Damon-led spy thriller films in the Jason Bourne series. This may explain why Andor functions as a sort of spy thriller show operating under the veneer of a Star Wars prequel. Much like the MCU, it seems that the Star Wars universe is at its best when its genres are blended together.
All this genre-bending combines to form an emotionally resonant and thrilling conclusion to the show’s premiere season, culminating in Fiona Shaw’s Maarva Andor, providing a rousing speech in her death, and poignantly demanding the people of Ferrix fight for their lives and for their freedoms. Of course, after spending a dozen episodes following the drama unfolding within the evil empire, as well as a long and storied anthology of other Star Wars movies, shows, and extended media, I’m sure we can all feel a fire inside ourselves when contemplating on how the empire can, as Shaw put it in her original rendition of the speech, get fucked.
Season 2 of Andor is set to be the show’s last, airing sometime in 2024. The second season is confirmed to cover the events of the four-year gap between the rebel uprising on Ferrix and the events of Gilroy’s first entry into the Star Wars universe, Rogue One. And while there are some certainties around the corner, such as the final construction of the Death Star becoming active and wreaking havoc upon the galaxy, finally toppled by the gang of misfits we know and love from the original 1970’s trilogy, we’re sure Tony Gilroy and his team will continue to surprise us around every corner.
