The ongoing Disney Plus Star Wars series Andor has been growing darker with each episode – and it looks like things could be about to get even worse for one character in particular.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy revealed that there are some “heavy things” to come for Mon Mothma, who he said has a “more rigorous and dangerous and more tension-making” path through the show than any other character.
And he also praised Genevieve O’Reilly’s “brilliant” portrayal of the character, who has played a crucial role in the prequel series thus far.
“We had some ambitions for what we were going to do with Mon Mothma, turning her upside-down and filling out her backstory in a way that might be obscure to canon and to the history books,” he explained.
“But I also was unaware of how brilliant an actress Genevieve O’Reilly is. I knew she was good, but we got in there and started messing around and like, oh my gosh, she’s world-class. Absolutely state of the art and she can do anything.”
He added: “I would argue, particularly because we’re doing season 2 stuff now… she has to do all the things that everybody else does, but she has to do it under glass. She’s under observation all the time. I would argue that her path through the show is more rigorous and dangerous and more tension-making than anybody’s, really.
“We rose to that as we figured that out and also figured out how brilliant and how difficult we could make the material for Genevieve, and how effortlessly she could pull it off. There’s some really heavy things coming up… I think her path is very, very tough.”
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Mothma was first introduced as the leader of the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in 1983 – then played by Caroline Blakiston – with O’Reilly having gone on to play the character in a range of other projects, including Revenge of the Sith, Rebels, and Rogue One.
Of course, given that the events depicted in Andor happen before Return of the Jedi, we know for certain that however dark things get for Mothma she will live to tell the tale – but it will certainly be interesting to see just what lies in store for the character in upcoming episodes.
Additional reporting by David Craig
Andor is available to stream on Disney Plus now. New episodes arrive weekly. Sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 for a year.
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