Andor Showrunner Wrote Legal Brief Attempting to Convince Disney to Drop F-Bomb in Star Wars

As soon as Star Wars fans heard Maarva proclaim, “Fight the Empire,” in the Season 1 finale of Star Wars: Andor, assumptions were made by audiences that this was intended to be, “F-ck the Empire,” which showrunner Tony Gilroy has confirmed since its release. Director Benjamin Caron recently reflected on how Gilroy was so passionate about dropping the first F-bomb in the franchise’s history that he wrote a legal brief supporting the decision, though it was a debate he ultimately lost. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe ultimately dropping an F-bomb in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it would seem Disney was open to the possibility, but opted against it for Andor.

Variety reports that Gilroy “wrote a legal brief for it,” as he detailed, “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.’”

“Disney wouldn’t let us use it,” Caron confirmed to the outlet. “So we changed it to ‘fight the empire.’ I remember having a call with Tony Gilroy saying, ‘Are we gonna get away with this?’”

Earlier in the season, the series offered the franchise’s first “sh-t,” with various other stories in the galaxy far, far away offering in-world expletives that allowed to circumvent actual cursing. 

Even if the actual language was altered, the impact of the scene still remains, with star Denise Gough previously detailing what it was like to bring the scene to life.

“I was given my two Death Troopers — one of whom had to be trained to run like a Death Trooper and not like a musical theatre star — and I couldn’t help myself, I just started doing the [hums the ‘Imperial March’]. Then, everyone started doing it,” Gough shared with Empire Magazine. 

She continued, “Fiona’s [Shaw] voice was over all of us … Except, at the end, she didn’t say, ‘Fight the Empire!’ She said, ‘F-ck the Empire!’ Which we were all really excited about. But we weren’t allowed to keep it, obviously.”

The nature of the franchise has always been that of a somewhat family-friendly affair, so we wouldn’t count on Lucasfilm leaning into any harder edges, but with what the MCU will be exploring with the upcoming Deadpool 3, the future of Star Wars could see more explorations of more mature subject matter.

Season 2 of Star Wars: Andor is currently in production.

Do you wish the scene used the original dialogue? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!