Andor Creator Says Genocide Speech Not About Trump or Palestine
A recent episode of “Andor” Season 2 has some questioning the political motivation behind it. Show creator Tony Gilroy has clarified, saying that it is not intentionally the case.
In the recent episode drop for “Andor,” Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) gives a speech at the Galactic Senate attacking Emperor Palpatine for his decision to kill peaceful protesters on the planet Ghorman, calling it genocide.
Here is the character’s speech.
“I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said today and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.
And the monster screaming the loudest, that we helped create, the monster who will come for us all, soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine.”
This has led some people to speculate that the film’s comments were about President Trump or the war between Israel and Palestine. Gilroy has said that it is not the case.
What did Tony Gilroy say?
THR pointed out that “Andor” production ran from 2022 to early 2024, and Trump was not in office or re-elected at that time. While the Hamas-Israel conflict did happen during this time frame, it was not the reason for the speech.
Gilroy himself said that the circumstances could be inferred to be about “modern politics” at various times throughout history.
“The really sorry truth about the about this question — and we get it a lot — is that peace and prosperity and calm are the rarities. Those are rarities throughout the last 6,000 years of recorded history. You could drop this show at any point in the last 6,000 years, and it would make sense to some people about what’s happening to them.”
“I mean, the control of truth has always been a scabbard of power. Power dictates the narrative, and always has tried to always do that. Look at what the Empire does to Ghorman with their propaganda campaign. The very first scene [in the season] that Krennic has where he talks about Ghorman, that’s based on the Wannsee convention — the convention where the Nazis got together and planned the final solution over a business lunch. You could say all this about the Gulf of Tonkin — which got America into Vietnam — or you could say the burning of the Reichstag [which paved the way to the Nazi’s rise to power], or you could say the sinking of the Lusitania [which pushed America into World War I]. You go all the way through history, and power is the control of truth. So I think with that speech, we were looking to be timeless and classic.”
“And I’m not psychic.”
Gilroy alludes to connections throughout history with WW1, WW2, and Vietnam. But it is not meant to be a commentary on current year politics or events that didn’t happen before production.
Not everything is a statement on modern times. However, given how Hollywood and the media push to politicize, it is understandable that people would think “Andor” was about these issues.
Plus, the important speech by Mon Mothma was changed from its original version in “Rebels”, so people may have felt it was for messaging. But Gilroy said they didn’t want to rehash what someone else wrote, but found a “sneaky” way to keep it in line with the animated show.
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