Andor Season 2's third arc shared a key connection with Star Wars: Rebels thanks to a gripping speech by Genevieve O'Reilly's Mon Mothma. O'Reilly's galactic senator has been key to Andor's shadowy dealings since Season 1; however, Season 2 has thrust her into a new light as she becomes the de facto figurehead of the Rebel Alliance, a role she very publicly assumes in Rebels, Rogue One, Star Wars: A New Hope and the rest of the original trilogy.
Since the beginning of Tony Gilroy's Andor series, fans have been waiting to see how/if it would ever tie into the events of Star Wars: Rebels. Seeing as the two series take place in roughly the same place in the Star Wars timeline, it felt like only a matter of time. And with the release of Season 2 Episodes 7-9, the series finally did it.
Andor's third Season 2 arc tackled the events of the Ghorman Massacre, a massive Empire-directed slaying of the Ghorman people after sewing the seeds of unrest on the planet for years, as well as the fallout from the intergalactic atrocity.
As a part of the events following the massacre, Mon Mothma was officially brought into the rebellion, which leads directly into an episode from the Rebels series.
Both Star Wars Rebels and Andor follow the early days of the Rebel Alliance, setting up what will become the Imperial War (as seen in the original three Star Wars films).
Andor Season 2, showrun yet again by Tony Gilroy, is ongoing on Disney+. It follows Diego Luna's Cassian Andor, a rebel spy who eventually leads a team of operatives in stealing the Death Star plans and laying the groundwork for the Rebels' eventual victory over the evil Empire.
Mon Mothma's Andor/Rebels Connections Explained
The Ghorman Massacre and its aftereffects, which were tackled in Andor Season 2, Episodes 7-9, also played a key role in Star Wars: Rebels Season 3, specifically in Season 3, Episode 18, "Secret Cargo."
This episode of the animated series follows the Ghost Crew (Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, Zeb Orellious, Sabine Wren, and Hera Syndulla) escorting Mon Mothma senator from Coruscant with the Empire quickly giving chase.
These events occur directly after the high-intensity Senate escape with Andor and Mon in Andor Season 2, Episode 9 ("Welcome to the Rebellion").
This chase on Coruscant follows an impassioned speech from Mon in Senate Chambers, in which she publicly proclaims the Empire as terrorists for the first time, calling the Ghorman Massacre a genocide.
However, as Andor attempts to take Mon off-planet to the safety of Yavin 4, he is told that his job is done as Mon's arrival on Yavin requires a bit more pomp and circumstance than arriving with Diego Luna's Rebel spy.
They tell Andor that Mon will be under the watch of Gold Squadron, and she is set to make another speech, which will be broadcast across the galaxy. Mon's speech as she travels to Yavin is not shown in the live-action series, but that is because fans have already seen it in Rebels.
At the end of "Secret Cargo," in the company of the Ghost crew (who came to help Gold Squadron in the Rebels), Mon Mothma announced an organized rebel effort to the galaxy in what has come to be known as the Declaration of the Rebel Alliance.
In that speech, she calls on rebel sympathizers across the Star Wars universe to unite under a common banner, saying, "Beginning today, we stand together as allies," and that she is stepping down as galactic senator to pursue the rebel cause exclusively:
Watch Mon Mothma's full Star Wars: Rebels speech here:
There have been connections between Andor and other entries into the Star Wars canon in the past (read more about other Andor Star Wars Easter eggs here), but this is easily the most seamless seen in the star-faring streaming drama yet, as the two projects directly bleed into one another.
With only three episodes left in Andor and this last arc covering the days before Cassian's appearance in Star Wars: Rogue One, it seems highly unlikely that any more Rebels connections will be present in the series. Fans will have to wait for Ahsoka Season 2 for more of those.
Instead, the series' final arc will spotlight legacy Rogue One characters like Alan Tudyk's K-2SO, as teased at the end of Andor Episode 9.
