Andor Season 2 just changed a major Star Wars Rebels story - here's why we love it, though

Andor Season 2, Episode 9, "Welcome to the Rebellion" delivered a thrilling episode, following an equally suspenseful one with the eighth episode, "Who Are You?" This episode explicitly focused on Mon Mothma and her attempts to escape the Imperial Senate Building after giving a speech condemning the Empire and Emperor Sheev Palpatine for the Ghorman Massacre in episode 8.

However, this episode also supposedly alters the origin of the Rebel Alliance in the history of the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars Rebels Season 3, Episode 18 tells the story of how the Rebel Alliance was formed. In that episode, Mon Mothma is rescued by a Gold Squadron ship, from which she delivers a speech intended to restore the Republic from the prequels. However, Episode 9 adds another layer.

Episode 9 reveals that Mon Mothma delivered a speech on the Senate floor that differs from the one given in the Rebels episode. After this speech, Mothma exits the Senate chamber and is helped by Cassian Andor to evade the imperial forces attempting to arrest her for treason. While some may feel that this change is a retcon, it can be argued that it is not.

Why is Andor Season 2 episode 9 not a retcon of the Rebel Alliance's origin?

The reason is simple: it is possible that the events seen in Star Wars Rebels might unfold after Season 2's ninth episode. In this episode, Mon Mothma finally took the step she had contemplated since the beginning of the first season, leaving the Imperial Senate and publicly joining the Rebel Alliance. We all know that Mothma delivered a speech before resigning, which we heard in Rebels. It goes:

"I name the Emperor, himself, for ordering the brutal attacks on the people of Ghorman. Their peaceful world is one of countless systems helpless against his oppressive rule. This massacre is proof that our self-appointed Emperor, is little more than a lying executioner, imposing his tyranny under the pretense of security. We cannot allow this evil to stand."

However, this speech is not the same one that Mothma gives on the floor of the Imperial Senate before resigning in Andor Season 2, Episode 9. This speech reads like this:

"Fellow senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries, I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart. I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous."

The speech then continues:

"The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped form our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman plaza. What took place yesterday, what happened yesterday on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide. Yes, genocide. And that truth has been exiled from this chamber. And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine."

This speech places Mon Mothma directly at risk, which is where Diego Luna's titular character comes in. He helps Mothma escape from the Senate Building and takes her to a safe house. From there, she will be safely escorted to Yavin IV on a Golden Squadron ship, from which she delivers the speech seen in Rebels. Thus, this Andor Season 2 change is not so much a retcon as an additional layer.

This is a sentiment that even the showrunner, Tony Gilroy, addressed in an Entertainment Weekly interview published on May 7, 2025.

What did Andor Season 2 showrunner Tony Gilroy say?

Entertainment Weekly published an interview the day after Andor Season 2 episodes, 7,8, and 9 were released. The interviewer asked Gilroy about the change, to which the showrunner responded:

"We are hijacking canon. In canon, she's rescued by the Gold Squadron and the speech that they gave in the cartoon, which was a canonical show, [is on that ship]. And Danny's like, 'Do I have to stick to this f****g speech?'"

Explaining the role of Cassian Andor in Mon Mothma's escape, Gilroy said:

"In a really sneaky way, we're minimizing what they did in Star Wars Rebels, but we're keeping it consistent. We're just saying you don't really know the whole story of what happened."

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