One of the few rare issues with Andor being as good as it is is that we’re not getting more of it, in any format—but one that especially stings is that we came so close to being able to look at the scripts behind the smash-hit Star Wars series. We were on the verge of greatness, as a certain Imperial director would’ve put it, in 2023 when Tony Gilroy and Lucasfilm announced that season one’s scripts would be published online, only for them to never arrive. Gilroy gave us an incredibly valid reason earlier this year—to avoid the scripts being fed into generative AI models—dashing our hopes that we’d ever similarly see the scripts for the then-upcoming season 2 released either.
But at least on that front, there’s a tiny glimmer of hope.
As part of its For Your Consideration campaign effort in the upcoming TV awards season (which, of course, includes Andor and its 14 Emmy nominations), Disney’s official FYC website has been updated to include a post-final production script for Andor season 2 episode 9, “Welcome to the Rebellion”, by Dan Gilroy. The episode, itself nominated in the Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series category at next month’s 77th Emmys, climaxes the third act of Andor season 2, and sees Cassian assist Mon Mothma’s escape from Coruscant after she delivers a damning speech in the Imperial Senate over Palpatine’s role in the Ghorman Massacre.
Even though we’ve had plenty of opportunity to watch and revisit the episode itself, reading the script offers some fascinating insight into the creative process behind Andor, and the chance to see what emotive beats and intent came from Gilroy’s writing, and what flourished or was tweaked naturally through the cast’s performance and interpretation of it. It’s also just a remarkable reading experience too, one that captures the tension that would ultimately sizzle on screen, with a flow and pacing that, even if you’re not used to reading a shooting script, glides by with a keen slickness. It’s not surprising that, even among an extremely strong crop of scripts to pick from in season 2, this is the one that earned Andor the nomination.
But as good as it is, it now makes Lucasfilm and Gilroy’s decision to stop the release of the rest of the Andor scripts all the more heartbreaking. It would be absolutely incredible that now the show is complete to be able to either freely peruse or even buy a coffee table book collecting the 24 scripts in a single place and re-experience the journey from a perspective that we rarely get for Star Wars material. Just another thing to blame generative AI for, for now at least.
You can read the full script to “Welcome to the Rebellion” here.
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