Andor makes its long-awaited debut on Disney Plus tomorrow, with the first three episodes of the show set to land at 3am ET/12am PT. The latest Star Wars streaming show has been a long time coming, but everything we’ve heard about this down-to-earth story focused on the Rebel Alliance sounds positive and those who’ve seen it say it’s unmissable.
Though there’ll be a few familiar faces many of the Andor characters are new to the franchise, with one of the key characters Fiona Shaw’s Maarva. The Killing Eve star seems to be playing Andor’s adoptive mother, taking him in as an orphan after his parents were killed by the Empire. But it seems their relationship is more complex than it first appears.
Speaking to ScreenRant, Shaw explained that:
“With Maarva, she lived kind of a wild life, and then found a son who came to her, and took him home. And I think they probably have a different problem. It’s not that Maarva’s the problem. It’s that Cassian doesn’t know where his sister is, and can never quite yield entirely to being Maarva’s son. Though he’s grateful to have a mother, and really likes having a mother, that’s part of his problem. It’s that he’s not found. He can’t find himself. So, she functions as a mother. But actually, that makes her upset, because she can’t intrude more.”
Given that Maarva is nowhere to be seen in Rogue One and knowing how Star Wars hero arcs usually shake out, the character may not be long for this world. Then again, the invasion of his home planet means Cassian Andor isn’t lacking in motivation to bring down the Empire, so she wouldn’t necessarily need to die to light that fire in his heart.
Even so, we doubt Maarva is going to be along for Andor’s adventure, as no matter how much of a ‘wild life’ she’s lived, it’d be pretty embarrassing for a hero to have his mom tagging along with him as he does spy stuff.
We’ll find out for certain in under a day, when Andor drops on Disney Plus.