When Tony Gilroy picked up an award for the second season of Andor at the 86th Annual Peabody Awards on May 31st, he pulled no punches with his acceptance speech, pleading to all, “please do not turn out the lights until we can kill this nightmare… and f**k the empire!”
“Andor” creator Tony Gilory, whose show has been honored for its prescient look at what happens when oppressive forces take hold in society, noted that “we spent six years contemplating a fascist takeover of a galaxy far, far away. Six years thinking about what happens to ordinary beings when an authoritarian, insane, unchecked regime comes into the deal, and the show is really kind of what we learned.
“If you’re not willing to fight for the things that you love, your family, community, your culture, your planet, your truth, freedom, there’s an asshole ready to come in and take it away,” he said. “We learned that bravery and sacrifice and resistance comes in all shapes and sizes, and we learned that courage is contagious.”
Gilroy paraphrased a character from “Andor” who noted that oppressors aim to commit so many atrocities at once and flood the zone so that citizens are too stunned and can’t pay attention to them all. That obviously sounds similar to what’s happening right now in this country. “There’s so much is happening, it’s a fire hose of crap that you just can’t get through,” Gilroy said. “And here we are. There isn’t a new cycle that goes by right now that doesn’t contain a variety of outrages that in any other time in our history in America wouldn’t be grounds for treason.”
He ended with a message to the journalists, documentarians and storytellers in the audience: “Please do not stop. Please do not turn out the lights until we can kill this nightmare… and fuck the empire!”
Congratulations to the cast and crew behind the second season of Andor. Stream all episodes of Andor exclusively on Disney+ now.
Image: x.com
