Star Wars’ most critically acclaimed TV series to date, Andor, returned last month for its much-anticipated second season. In its three-episode debut, Andor pulls no punches on living up to its reputation as the “gritty,” “realistic” take on life in the Star Wars galaxy during the height of the Galactic Empire. Controversy, as usual with Disney‘s Star Wars, was invited.
The same show that opened its first season with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) visiting a brothel in search of his sister also featured a violent attempted rape in its third episode. Fans are bitterly divided over what this means for Star Wars — and they should be.
Star Wars has always been considered entertainment for children and families, but in the age of streaming and market segmentation, stories in a galaxy far, far away have been getting darker and darker. Appealing to people of all ages in one movie theater is no longer a concern of Star Wars, and yet, this old story has always treaded uncomfortable ground and left parents wondering whether they should have shielded their children’s eyes.
Let’s first review what happens on screen in Andor. Cassian’s love interest, Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), finds herself alone on a new planet after fleeing political chaos and persecution on her homeworld of Ferrix. When her abode is visited by a menacing Imperial lieutenant conducting a census of immigrant laborer visas, he forces himself on Bix.
Fans are at each other’s throats, and the subject matter cuts deep. “I don’t want to see rape in Star Wars,” said the powerhouse fan creator StarWarsTheory. The other side of the reaction was mostly to applaud the “bravery” of Tony Gilroy and other Andor showrunners in touching on the topic of sexual violence as part of political oppression.
The usual cultural battle lines are being drawn between more left-leaning fans who relish the breaking of norms and inclusion of weighty social themes and conservatives who cherish escapism in their galactic fairytales.
Grim realities in a galaxy far, far away
At issue is a question eternally dogging Hollywood, especially Disney, which has repeatedly driven headlong into controversy over its messaging on social issues. Is this kind of thing appropriate for Star Wars?
George Lucas’ space opera spanning six films between 1977 and 2005 was originally conceived as an antidote to the grittiness and gloom of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lucas knew Americans were burnt out by the malaise of Vietnam and the violent cynicism of films such as Dirty Harry and Taxi Driver. They needed a modern fairytale, and Lucas was going to give it to them.
It worked, and the original Star Wars trilogy was a profound success for audiences of all ages. It was roundly innocent of intense violence and overt sex, with one glaring exception. Princess Leia is captured at the start of Return of the Jedi (1983) and forced into the infamous “Slave Leia” outfit, a metal bikini, complete with a thick collar and chain leash.
Was it appropriate? Probably not. A generation of children at that moment was silently asking themselves the “why?” of it all. It was a sexually tinged and dark scene, top to bottom. From the waggling of Jabba’s tail in Leia’s face as she is forced against him to the tugging on her chain, any conscientious parent would have winced as they tried to determine on the spot whether this was over the line for their fifth grader.
Moving on to the prequels between 1999 and 2005, sexually uncomfortable realities present themselves once again. Padme and Anakin’s intimate time together on Naboo remains an odd cultural time capsule for millennials coming of age in the 2000s. The forbidden couple sits by the fire, Anakin pressing Padme for a relationship, and she twists in her seat, wearing a provocative black dress in what is truly the most sexed scene in a Star Wars film to date.
And we aren’t even going to talk about the “younglings.”
Star Wars has touched some third rails that fair minds would call inappropriate. Rape would be a fourth rail.
Radical, but disciplined?
There are many ways Bix’s scene could have been done by Tony Gilroy’s Andor. Rather than go the route of implication and relying on audiences to pick up on subtleties, Gilroy does the unthinkable. Still, it was a half measure.
The dialogue is restrained and steers away from the vulgarity of what the officer truly wants. He alludes to Bix’s “strong hands” and his needing “relaxation” from the stress of his work. The perpetrator never makes it to the gut-wrenching frame we’ve all seen in major films and TV of the belt buckle coming undone. Bix’s clothes remain intact, even as her dignity is once again shattered in this story.
These full measures would have been fully inappropriate for Star Wars and also bumped Andor squarely into the 14-plus category on Disney+. Gilroy was disciplined.
Once Bix has subdued her attacker with some well placed blows to the head, she shouts to another nearby Imperial that the lieutenant “tried to rape me.” Even saying the word aloud in the setting of a galaxy far, far away is notably uncomfortable, and the debate over this choice is shaded similarly to the documented choice not to have someone say “f***” in the finale of season one. Showrunners wanted it to happen, but cooler heads prevailed.
This was a reasoned choice for a show like Andor, which is specifically designed to peel away the “cops and robbers” vibe to Rebel and Imperial conflict. It’s not as fun as Star Wars has always been, and it’s not promoted as such compared to recent series such as The Skeleton Crew, which leaned into The Goonies and the aesthetics of Amblin Entertainment family classics.
Something that makes this scene so explosive for an already on-edge fanbase is that agreeing to disagree isn’t part of the Star Wars fandom culture. The people OK with rape being depicted in Star Wars are “bad” and the people who are uncomfortable with it are “super bad” misogynists. The truth is that people of good faith are entitled to shock and discomfort over Star Wars portraying a full-blown sexual assault.
A fight over “reality”
The fight over realism sits at the core of the American culture war. When more conservative, anti-Disney types are railing against they/them pronouns and transgender characters in recent Star Wars offerings, they are in part railing against a distortion of reality that young audiences on Disney+ are picking up. They don’t want to explain over dinner to their 10-year-old why a character in a Star Wars show goes by “they.”
Left-leaning fans who are celebrating the inclusion of sexual assault in Star Wars are cheering it on as a dark kind of realism, like comedian John Mulaney’s perfect take on shattering childlike naivete when he says, “Brush your teeth. Now boom! Orange juice. That’s life.”
Tony Gilroy’s comment to the press about the scene vibed similarly when he said, “The history of civilization, there’s a huge arterial component of it that’s rape. All of us who are here — we are all the product of rape. I mean armies and power throughout history [have committed rape].”
This plays into a well-founded belief on the Right that what the political Left values is the end of innocence. Leftists’ movement has become deeply committed to the violation of simple childhood with mature content on gender, race, and political power. This is exactly what was on the Supreme Court’s plate last week in a case over Maryland parents wanting to opt their children out of LGBT book talks in grade school.
“Now there is rape in Star Wars,” and “they” want you to cheer because “that’s life.” It’s easy to see why this issue is polarizing rapidly online.
Conservatives should resist an outsize reaction to this plot point in Andor. We do broadly favor difficult realities in addition to longing for a return of magic and wonder in Hollywood. It’s worth noting that Andor touched this fourth rail of storytelling while not slapping a trigger warning at the front end of the episode, and this is a strange kind of progress in the culture war of oversensitivity.
Ultimately, Andor has been marketed for years as “Star Wars for adults,” and nothing has changed. Gilroy’s political drama leading up to Star Wars: Rogue One is an exposé on the ugly realities of totalitarianism, civil war, and fighting back against government.
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The brand problem for Disney, however, looms large in the background of this miniature Star Wars controversy. Most families expect Disney+, like the Disney Channel of old, to be a place where they can blindly trust the content to be PG. It is an unwelcome surprise for an unwitting parent to have to explain they/them pronouns or sexual assault after turning on a show with Disney’s name attached to it. And yet, both of these things have occurred in Star Wars projects.
This challenge doesn’t bode well for Disney. Shows marketed toward adults and more cynical audiences assume they don’t care about shattering the innocence of characters on screen or viewers at home. Parents, however, are a different story.
Stephen Kent is a political commentator and author of How The Force Can Fix The World. Follow him on X @StephenKentX.