“Andor” Creator On S2’s Controversial Scene

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “ANDOR” SEASON 2, EPISODE 3

Tony Gilroy’s “Andor” has scored universal acclaim for subverting expectations as to what a Disney+ “Star Wars” show can be – delivering a more serious and mature take on the franchise that forgoes fan service and the more cartoony fantasy-adventure aspects of George Lucas’ creation in favor of a prestige adult political drama.

It’s a show that has pushed through creative limitations left and right and the fanbase loves it for that. But even by the show’s standards, one scene in the just released third episode of the new season has shocked and upset viewers.

In the episode, Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) is hiding out in a farming settlement while Imperial troops are rounding up ‘undocumented’ citizens. Over the course of the episode, an Imperial officer’s flirtation with Bix becomes increasingly pushy.

It culminates in a scene in which he attempts to violently rape Bix. In the ensuing struggle, she ultimately gets the upper hand and kills the officer. Bix then makes it clear what happened when she screams “He tried to rape me!”.

“Star Wars” is famously a fairly chaste franchise. There is romance, but nothing in the way of explicitness, and there is sexual servitude (ie. Leia’s slave bikini). The first season of “Andor” vaguely hinted at sex in the seventh episode with a morning after scene set in a dingy motel.

This, however, goes far beyond that and has people asking why it was necessary. Speaking with THR, Gilroy says it was required to tell an accurate tale of revolution and shying away from sexual assault didn’t feel ‘truthful’:

“I get one shot to tell everything I know — or can discover, or that I’ve learned — about revolution, about battles, with as many incidents and as many colors as I can get in there, without having [the story] tip over. I mean, let’s be honest, man: The history of civilization, there’s a huge arterial component of it that’s rape.

All of us who are here – we are all the product of rape. I mean armies and power throughout history [have committed rape]. So to not touch on it, in some way … It just was organic and it felt right, coming about as a power trip for this guy. I was really trying to make a path for Bix that would ultimately lead to clarity – but a difficult path to get back to clarity.”

Gilroy adds that he received no pushback on the scene from the studio:

“No one ever ever said anything about it, ever, but I mean, we have limits on what we can do. We are very aware of what we can do sexually and violence wise. Those limits are made very clear.”

Fan reactions have been fairly divided over the sequence – some abhorring its inclusion in the franchise, others saying it reflects the real world and commends the producing and writing team for not shying away from this topic.

There are still nine more episodes of “Andor” Season 2 to go over the next few weeks.

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