Diego Luna as Cassian Andor.
Disney+
“Andor” almost dropped the F bomb in its first-season finale.
A character originally said “Fuck the Empire” before it was changed, according to actress Denise Gough.
“Andor” is the best-reviewed “Star Wars” live-action series yet, and feels more gritty than previous shows.
Disney+’s “Andor” isn’t like any other “Star Wars” show — so much so, that the F-word almost made it in to an episode, according to an actress in the series.
Actress Denise Gough, who plays the villain Dedra Meero in the series, told Empire Magazine that the phrase “fuck the Empire” was left on the cutting room floor of the first-season finale, which aired last week.
“Fiona’s voice was over all of us,” Gough told Empire, referring to actress Fiona Shaw’s monologue in the episode. “Except, at the end, she didn’t say, ‘Fight the Empire!’ She said, ‘Fuck the Empire!’ Which we were all really excited about. But we weren’t allowed to keep it, obviously.”
“Andor” could be described as a “gritty” “Star Wars” series. No Jedi, no Force, and no Baby Yoda — just rebels. So if any franchise installment were to throw in a curse word, it makes sense that it would have been this one.
It’s received glowing reviews from critics, with the first season receiving a 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, the best of any of Disney+’s live-action “Star Wars” series.
Fans also enjoy it, as it has an 85% audience score — better than “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (63%) and “Book of Boba Fett” (55%).
Early on in the season, though, it was trailing those other shows in popularity, despite its acclaim. With the first season now concluded, it’s possible that further data could show that it gained momentum as the series went on.
But the three-episode premiere lagged behind other “Star Wars” debuts in viewership, according to Nielsen data.
For instance, the first three episodes, which debuted on a Wednesday, were watched for 624 million minutes in their first five days of release, according to Nielsen. The first two episodes of “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which were released on a Friday, were watched for 1.026 billion minutes in three days.