The Star Wars series Andor existing at all is even more of a miracle today than it already was.

On Wednesday, September 17, ABC and its parent company Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, after threats by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The threats followed Kimmel’s comments about the GOP’s response to right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk’s death. As we all know, Disney owns Star Wars. So, the fact that we have a Disney-owned TV show that speaks up about fascism and what it takes to fight against it, whenever head executives at Disney are considering allowing their content to be censored and controlled by the government… it’s a miracle.

In fact, with government threats resulting in Kimmel’s suspension and the end of Stephen Cobert’s talk show contract, it’s quite possible that Andor made it to our screens by the skin of its teeth. In the wake of Disney’s decision, it’s hard to believe the company would allow a show with such strong anti-authoritarian themes to exist in the first place. Especially one led by a Mexican actor who spoke adamantly against the U.S. president on Jimmy Kimmel Live only a few months ago.

“Andor” Is What We Make of It

But the beautiful thing about Andor arriving, and ending, when it did, is that now, it will always exist – at least in some capacity. Even if worst comes to worst and the show vanishes from streaming, physical copies of season 1 exist in people’s homes across the world, not just in the United States. And, perhaps what’s more, the episodes and specific scenes, such as Mon Mothma’s speech to the Imperial senate in the season 2 Emmy-winning episode “Welcome to the Rebellion,” live in our minds and our memories. Art is what we make of it, and Andor viewers have made this art a foundation for political thought and rebellious hope that cannot be easily dismantled.

This is why, despite valid criticisms of various aspects of the show, Andor’s very existence will always be important. As government agencies like the FCC try to dictate what people can say to the public, and companies like the Sinclair Broadcast Group — one of the U.S.’s largest telecommunications conglomerates that owns stations affiliated with ABC — try to use their influence to make a talk show host donate to an alt-right organization, any media that encourages its viewers to resist such efforts is not only important, but vital.

Persistence and Resistance

Several organizations throughout the U.S. have already spoken against the FCC’s threats and Disney’s decision — some even from within the FCC itself.

“This FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes,” FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez said in an official statement against the censorship pressures from FCC Chair Brendan Carr. “When corporations surrender in the face of that pressure, they endanger not just themselves, but the right to free expression for everyone in this country.”

Hollywood Labor, made up of the American Federation of Musicians, the Directors Guild of America, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and the Screen Actors Guild, issued a joint statement against the attempted censorship: “This kind of political pressure on broadcasters and artists chills free speech and threatens the livelihoods of thousands of working Americans,” the statement says. “Media companies have a responsibility to defend their workers and the integrity of the stories they tell.”

It’s not just organizations, either. Actors such as Pedro Pascal and Tatiana Maslany, both of whom hold prominent roles in Disney-owned franchises have also spoken up about Disney’s decision and the FCC’s force. Writer Dan Gilroy — who wrote the episode that won Andor, and therefore Disney, the 2025 Emmy for Best Writing in a Drama Series — even wrote a guest article for Deadline encouraging Disney to not pave “the road to a brave new Trumpian world.”

History Rhymes

Despite the terrifying notions it brings, the U.S. government’s attempted censorship of Jimmy Kimmel Live is not the end. The people of this country have been fighting government control for decades, centuries. We fought against McCarthyism and the Red Scare in the 1950s, which included wide-spread media censorship that resulted, among other things, in the implementation of the Comics Code Authority. Today, we continue a decades-long fight against book bans at public schools and libraries. We are not new to this fight.

And that’s where media like Andor becomes all the more important, because despite what some might think, the show does not predict the future; it highlights our past. Through its adaptation of historical struggles and resistance, Andor reminds us that our oppressors are not as original as they think they are. They seem to forget they’re playing a game that, if we pay attention to our history, we know how to play, too.