The creators of Andor fought to include an “F-bomb” in the season one finale of the acclaimed Star Wars spin-off – but Disney refused.
Over the course of a dozen films and numerous TV series, the popular science fiction franchise has avoided using explicit language. The proposed swear word would have been the first of its kind in the Star Wars canon.
Andor is set between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and charts the rise of the rebellion. Diego Luna stars as Cassian Andor, a jaded thief who gradually becomes committed to the rebel cause.
The season one finale of Andor depicts the funeral of Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw), Cassian’s adoptive mother.
Via a pre-recorded hologram, the late Maarva delivers a rousing speech to a crowd of onlookers on the planet Ferrix, which provokes an uprising against the oppressive Empire. Her speech ends with the exclamation: “Fight the Empire!”
Speaking to Variety, director Benjamin Caron reveals that the show’s creators had fought for the script to instead read: “F*** the Empire!”
Among those to push for the inclusion was Tony Gilroy, the overall creator of Andor.
“Disney wouldn’t let us use it,” Caron said. “So we changed it to ‘fight the empire.’ I remember having a call with Tony Gilroy saying, ‘Are we gonna get away with this?’”
Gilroy told the outlet that he “wrote a legal brief” urging Disney to allow him to include the explicit word.
“I wrote a memo on it and said, ‘Here’s why I think it’s economically prudent, and here’s why I think it’s good,’” he recalled.
While Star Wars is yet to officiallly include an “F-bomb” in its films or TV shows, fans of The Mandalorian were stunned earlier this year when a character appeared to utter an explicit phrase as part of an alien dialect.
Andor is available to stream on Disney+ now.
