Thanks To Andor, S*** Just Got Real In The Star Wars Universe
"Star Wars," as we all know, is very serious business and no filmmaker would ever dare depart from the traditions that have been established since 1977. For instance, some character must always mention that they have a "bad feeling" about what's going to happen. The opening shot of every movie must always take place in space, too. And, apparently, Maker help us all if some variation of a Death Star doesn't show up at one point or another.
But there's one particular aspect that the franchise has always strived to stay away from ... until now, at least. The release of the new Disney+ series "Andor," heralded as the darkest addition to the universe yet and one that arguably doesn't even feel like "Star Wars," has opened up a whole new corner of the space opera series with the delivery of a single, never-before-heard curse word in this galaxy far, far away. For those unduly sensitive to some light "Andor" spoilers for the (currently streaming) first three episodes and mildly spicy language — more so than "Bantha poodoo," at least — look away now!
Star Wars? More like Swear Wars, am I right?
In episode three of the series, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his village come under attack by a security organization with ties to the Empire, relentlessly pursuing their prime murder suspect and ready to take our soon-to-be Rebel spy down at all costs. What they didn't anticipate, however, was the native population not taking very kindly to such an unwelcome intrusion. Once Sergeant Linus Mosk (played by Scottish actor Alex Ferns) opens his eyes to the gravity of their situation and grasps how much they're in over their head, well, he reacts as any officer would — by uttering a nervous "S***" upon realizing how badly their operation has gone.
In so doing, "Andor" made one small step for vulgarity and one giant leap for breaking "Star Wars" precedent and social media was quick to pick up on it.
Yes, "Star Wars" has (mostly) steered clear of real-world curse words in favor of made-up lingo such as "Dank farrik," "E chu ta," or the ever-popular "Blast!" or "Kriff" — most of which sound almost worse than if they'd just used normal expletives instead, but that's just me. In any case, creator Tony Gilroy went one step further than some previous "Star Wars" productions have gone, like in "Solo: A Star Wars Story," when Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian is humorously cut off before he can say "S***."
Before any fans get all out of sorts about this, try to remember that even George Lucas' movies had dialogue that included words like "Hell," "damn," and other fairly tame curses, too. Perhaps one day, a "Star Wars" movie will take advantage of that PG-13 rule and slip in an F-bomb at one hilarious moment, too. If not, well, we'll always have "scruffy-looking nerf herder," I guess.