It came very close to being the F-bomb that started a rebellion, but it wasn't meant to be.
One of the most powerful scenes in the first season of Andor occurred in the season finale, when Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw) addressed the citizens of Ferrix at her own funeral via a pre-recorded holographic message. After a rousing speech urging her people to take up arms against their oppressors, Maarva concludes with, "fight the Empire!"
As previously reported, the character was originally supposed to say "f*ck the Empire," but the creative team simply couldn't get Disney to sign off on it.
“But Disney wouldn’t let us use it,” director Benjamin Caron tells 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?’”
Writer/showrunner Tony Gilroy went so far as to write a legal brief. “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.’”
To be fair, the scene still works very well without the profanity, but would allowing Shaw to deliver the line as originally intended, have had a bit more impact? Some feel it may have had less, since "fight the Empire" is really more of a call to arms.
Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.