Star Wars: Andor Showrunner Confirms SPOILER Is Really Dead

Over the course of the first season of Star Wars: Andor, audiences both met and had to say goodbye to a number of compelling characters, though the nature of the Star Wars fandom means that speculation always surrounds the concept of a character truly being dead. Now that the Season 1 finale of Andor is streaming on Disney+, fans witnessed various compelling sequences that only saw speculation about the fate of select figures grow stronger in support of both their death and their survival, but at least as far as one significant figure is concerned, showrunner Tony Gilroy confirmed they are definitively dead.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Season 1 of Star Wars: Andor

Arguably the most important person in Cassian Andor’s life was Maarva, who served as a maternal figure for Diego Luna’s character, only for Maarva’s death to take place off-screen before the season concluded. In the season finale, audiences witnessed Fiona Shaw’s Maarva deliver a powerful eulogy about Rebellion, with some fans thinking it was all a ruse as part of her Rebel schemes, yet Gilroy confirmed she definitely died.

When discussing with Entertainment Weekly the theory that Maarva’s death was faked, Gilroy confirmed, “I saw that theory. I love that theory. I saw somebody with a theory, ‘Oh, my God, she’s not dead. They’re sneaking her out of there. It’s Cassian’s way of getting her free and they think she’s dead.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a viable idea,’ but that’s not what we’re doing.”

In addition to thinking that the death was faked for symbolic reasons, some fans even thought that Maarva’s more subtle demise off-screen was due to a complication related to production or an evolving script.

“I was really pleased a week or so ago, because I do voyeuristically drop in on Twitter every day and see what the hell’s going on and what people are saying,” the filmmaker detailed. “I loved the idea that, ‘Oh, my God, Tony Gilroy knows how to do all the same, but he puts her death off-screen. Did they have a production problem or was it a scheduling issue or what was it? Why would he do that?’ And, no, I knew I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t know I had the eulogy. I had the eulogy idea a long time ago, so having that in my hip pocket makes it almost mandatory that I do it this way. Yeah. So it was good. It’s a fun bit of writing.”

Season 1 of Star Wars: Andor is now streaming on Disney+.

What did you think of Maarva’s death? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!