Andor’s Diegetic Funeral Song is an Original Piece by Nicholas Britell

Disney Plus’ Star Wars prequel series has been one of the strongest features to date in the galaxy far, far away and we discuss Andor’s funeral song that played in the season finale.

The series has met critical acclaim throughout its 12-episode longevity, introducing new characters to canon like Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael and Andy Serkis’ Kino Loy.

Created by Tony Gilroy for Disney Plus, Andor is a prequel series to Star Wars spin-off Rogue One, returning Diego Luna as Cassian Andor. Set five years before the Jyn Erso-led project, Andor also stars Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, and Fiona Shaw.

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Andor Episode 12 Recap

During the season finale, we return to Ferrix in order to see Cassian, Luthen and the ISB gather on Rix Road during Maarva’s funeral.

We see a band warming up for a couple of scenes before they start marching down Rix Road playing a somber funeral song.

Once they reach the ISB forces, they stop to watch B2EMO project Maarva’s final message to the mourners, which inspires them to rise up against the Empire. 

Andor’s Funeral Song is an Orignal Piece

During an interview with Slash Film, showrunner Tony Gilroy revealed that the funeral song was the first piece of music that he worked on with composer Nicholas Britell:

“This was our attempt to be somewhat terrestrial and to have something that hopefully could only exist in Ferrix. It was a real, total collaboration. That’s the very first thing that we did.”

Gilroy also elaborated on what he wanted the diegetic funeral song – one of Star Wars’ rare cases of diegetic music – to emote during the scene and how he wanted it to be a “civic experience”:

“We need some clanging banging that makes sense. We need to make this music for Ferrix that’s the street music. Then we have to have this funeral music, and it’s about eight minutes of diegetic music, and we need to build it. I want it really played. I want it to be amateur, and I want it to be aspirational. I want it to be a civic experience.

Diegetic music refers to music being played in a movie or television series that can be heard by the characters, not just the audience, as part of the story’s context.

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When Will Andor Season 2 Come Out?

Andor will run for two seasons, as the series was previously confirmed to have 24 episodes in full, spanning two seasons.

The entirety of Andor covers a five-year period, and Season 1 already took up one year of that expanse, and the next block of episodes in Season 2 will span the remaining four years leading up to the events of Rogue One.

Considering Season 1 began filming in December 2020 and took two years to premiere, this means fans should expect Season 2’s release window to be in mid-to-late 2024.

By Jo Craig – [email protected]

Andor is now streaming on Disney Plus.