Dan Gilroy Reveals The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Mon Mothma’s Defining Speech

Mon Mothma finally unleashed the speech we all knew she had in her, and it turns out that moment came from a very real place for the person who wrote it. Andor season 2 framed it as a line-in-the-sand move. Behind the scenes, it was something closer to a pressure valve snapping.

Dan Gilroy wrote it angry, and it shows

Dan Gilroy penned Mon Mothma's Senate speech in 2023 while watching American politics do the thing American politics does. He told Empire that as he started typing, he was watching people in power toss their supposed principles out the window. That fury bled into the page.

'As I was literally starting to write it, I was watching senators and congressmen and congresswomen abandoning their democratic principles and bending their knee to power. So when I am writing that speech, I am angry.'

He knew the speech would resonate beyond Star Wars, so he built it with almost religious care. Every comma, every period. He treated it like sacred ground, because to him, there is nothing more important than someone willing to risk themselves for a political ideal and to push back against the worst instincts in human nature.

Where it lands in Andor

The scene hits in season 2, episode 9, right after the Ghorman Massacre arc detonates. Genevieve O'Reilly's Mon Mothma stops playing the long game and goes public. She calls out the Empire's atrocities for what they are, using the words nobody in that chamber wants to hear: unprovoked genocide, truth being twisted to serve power. It is a clear turning point for the character and the timeline.

Yes, it diverges from Rebels on purpose

In Star Wars Rebels, Mon's big declaration happens after Gold Squadron rescues her, and the speech is delivered on that ship. That is canon. On Andor, the creative team wanted their own version without breaking anything. Showrunner Tony Gilroy told Entertainment Weekly his brother Dan basically asked if he had to stick to the exact speech from the animated series. The solution: Cassian Andor extracts Mon from the Senate while dodging Bail's compromised squadron, gets her to a safe house, and only then is she set to link up with Gold Squadron. Tony put it pretty simply: they are minimizing what Rebels showed while keeping the story consistent. You just did not know the full sequence of events until now.

How it made it to screen the way you saw it

The plan was to slice the speech around action beats. Genevieve O'Reilly thought Mon deserved the entire moment uninterrupted. Tony Gilroy popped into her trailer, asked if she wanted him to write the whole thing, and she said yes immediately. Within a day or two, Dan delivered the full speech that ended up in the episode.

Tony Gilroy on coming back to Star Wars

Since stepping away from Andor, Tony Gilroy told GamesRadar+ that a return would have to actually matter. A blank check is not moving the needle for him. He wants to spend whatever time he has left on work that feels urgent. If there is a temptation, it is London, not the galaxy far, far away. He misses the city and the crew he worked with for six years. As for what happens to Star Wars next, he has zero control and mixed hopes: if future projects honor what came before, great; if they do not, he will probably dislike it more than anyone.

Quick hit: Andor at a glance

• Show: Andor
• Creator: Tony Gilroy
• Seasons: 2
• Main cast: Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgard, Fiona Shaw, Genevieve O'Reilly, Denise Gough
• IMDb: 8.6/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
• Streaming: Andor seasons 1-2 are on Disney+

Whether you loved the show already or not, Dan Gilroy's work on that Senate moment is a big reason the scene is widely called one of Star Wars TV's strongest. Do you want more of these defining, moral-clarity speeches for other characters across the franchise? Who should get the next one?