As Star Wars has grown and modernized, more and more bits of our own evolving lexicon have become part of its dialogue—and cursing is no exception. For every dank ferrik and sithspit, there’s been mild curses from the “real world.” Already Andor made a transgressive step in having key characters use real cursing, but its true sweary prize remained out of reach.
That is, of course, the denoument of Maarva Carasi Andor’s powerful funeral call to arms at the very climax of Andor’s first season. “If I could do it again, I’d wake up early—and be fighting these bastards from the start,” her hologram tells the gathered funeralgoers, before defiantly yelling “Fight the Empire!”
Except she didn’t on set. We’ve known pretty much since Andor concluded its incredible first season that what the cast and crew heard, and what actor Fiona Shaw said, was instead “Fuck the Empire,” escalating the show’s use of non-fictional expletives in what would’ve been Star Wars’ first official use of the word. But it wasn’t to be—Disney pushed back, the line was re-dubbed, and Maarva’s speech still managed to be one of the best things Star Wars has ever done anyway. But it could’ve been even better! And showrunner Tony Gilory really wanted it to be.
“But Disney wouldn’t let us use it,” Andor director Benjamin Caron recently told Variety. “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 tried to—going so far as to write a brief for Disney and Lucasfilm as to why saying “fuck” made sense. “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,’” Gilroy added when talking to the trade. God, what I wouldn’t give to read that memo. Or at the very least the economic argument—presumably the cost of redubbing the line in post-production? But either way, if Disney won’t release the Andor Fuck Cut, it should at least release the Andor Fuck Brief.
I can’t live in a world where the closest Star Wars has come to an F-bomb is that Mandalorian Anzellan skirting around it. I simply cannot. It’ll be hard to find a moment as potent as Maarva’s rallying cry to deploy it, but hopefully Disney will listen to Gilroy and get us a “Fuck” in season two, as a little treat.
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