Movies - TV
Tony Gilroy Used A Clerks Joke As Inspiration For Andor's Prison
By ERIC VESPE
As movie nerds, the main characters from 1994’s “Clerks” had one of the most memorable discussions about whether or not everyone aboard the Death Star was evil when Luke Skywalker and the rebel alliance destroyed it. Years later, Tony Gilroy turned this silly, geeky conversation into a serious storyline in “Andor.”
“Andor” on Disney+ sees the title character imprisoned and forced to work on individual pieces that eventually built the Death Star, confirming that the Empire indeed used prison labor to craft the weapon. In an interview, Gilroy admitted that he took inspiration for this angle in the story from the silly line of questioning in “Clerks.”
Gilroy told Rolling Stone, “In 'Clerks' they talk about who's cleaning up the Death Star, right? [...] So we're trying to say, Man, it's a massive effort to build all these ships and build all these weapons, and build all these buildings [...] All this stuff needs to be built and I don't think everybody was getting $15 an hour to do it.”