Tony Gilroy and Adria Arjona on Andor‘s Dark Season 2 Scene

The archetypal play of Andor took moments to amusement the tiny ways the Empire oppresses its people. Season two’s premiere episodes proceed that thread, with the darkest illustration truthful acold coming successful occurrence three, “Harvest.” Spoilers and a contented informing for discussions of battle below.

On a farming settlement, Cassian’s aged person Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) is inactive recovering from her torture connected Ferrix past season. The Empire’s travel for a regular inspection (and to find undocumented workers), and an serviceman has taken a peculiar involvement successful her, asking erstwhile her “husband” is coming location and casually noting comms person been blocked. He past forces himself connected her, resulting successful her sidesplitting him successful a stroke to a caput and a declaration to the man’s subordinate: “He tried to rape me.”

In an interrogation with the Hollywood Reporter, Tony Gilroy—the show’s creator and writer of this season’s archetypal arc—said it felt “organic and right” to incorporated the scene, which is portion of Bix’s “difficult path” backmost to herself pre-torture.

“I get 1 changeable to archer everything I cognize oregon discovered astir gyration and battles, with arsenic galore incidents I tin get successful determination without having the communicative extremity over,” helium explained. “I mean, let’s beryllium honest: successful the past of civilization, there’s a immense arterial constituent of it that’s rape. […] Armies and powerfulness passim past person committed it.”

Star Wars has antecedently touched connected intersexual battle via Leia’s enslaved outfit and mentions of Qi’ra’s backstory in Solo, but it’s ne'er shown an attempted assault. Gilroy noted the “very clear” limits of enactment and unit Andor is allowed, but otherwise, Disney had nary pushback connected the scene.

In a abstracted interrogation with Variety, Arjona recalled a premix of emotions speechmaking and filming the scene. On 1 hand, she admitted being “really scared” beforehand, but she considered it “really fucking powerful” to get to bash it successful this franchise. “Bix is successful the astir susceptible authorities she tin imaginable beryllium in, and idiosyncratic tries to instrumentality vantage of her,” she said. “We’ve heard that communicative galore times. The information that Tony gave it to Bix was a large honor—and it was right.”

There was “so overmuch power” felt successful declaring the onslaught an attempted rape, added Arjona, and advised for “any woman, for anyone, erstwhile you person a stranger, a antheral stranger, successful your ain space, everything becomes survival.”

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