One of the most important moments Andor fans have waiting for happened in this week’s episode drop of the hit Star Wars series. On the last episode, following the conflict on Ghorman, Mon Mothma took to the Senate floor to deliver a damning indictment of Emperor Palpatine’s true reign of tyranny. It solidified Mon Mothma as a leader of the Rebellion in the public sphere in an preamble expansion of the moment seen on Star Wars Rebels.
The new scene serves as a sort of companion speech to the one she delivers while en route to Yavin with the Gold Squadron, and it’s aimed directly at Palpatine and those working to keep his favor out of fear. Actress Genevieve O’Reilly and show creator Tony Gilroy talked to Entertainment Weekly about the moment Mon’s life trajectory changed forever.
“The monster who will come for us all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine,” the character declares in the speech.
“[Mon] knows that now is the time to use her one weapon, which is her voice, and she must use it and be as impactful as possible,” O’Reilly said. “She is ruthless in that moment, in the name of the Rebellion.”
O’Reilly continued to explain how it was something she wanted to make sure to do in full. “It was everything I was hoping for,” she told EW. “That’s like the best gift you can get as an actor. She speaks to how important the Senate is to her. You can see that it’s like her church. She reveals so much and then she calls out some really brutal truths.”
“I knew that that would be important to fans. I knew it was also really important to me for her. That’s the fulcrum of who Mon Mothma is right there. And so I got to stand up for her in that moment. That was really important to me, and I hope it means something to people because it felt really great to be able to give her that voice.”
And yes, it diverges from what was in the animated canon before. Gilroy admitted, “In a really sneaky way, we’re minimizing what they did in Star Wars Rebels, but we’re keeping it consistent. We’re just saying you don’t really know the whole story of what happened.”
O’Reilly asked Gilroy to expand on what was originally cut up between other moments of the episode’s final act, because she knew it was essential to Mon’s character to give her that full moment.
“Within a day or two, he came with that whole speech,” she explained. “He gave it to me, the idea being that I would learn it and then they would just do those moments. Then, I went to the director, and the director was like, ‘Yeah, let’s film the whole speech.’ It was such a huge thing to me to give that whole speech. It feels really special.”
Andor airs weekly on Disney+.
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