Andor’s opulent wedding sequence mints a ‘galactic hit’ in Star Wars music

It’s that time of year: wedding season. For a lot of the continental U.S., spring and summer brings to fruit a flurry of wedding invites — and Andor’s first batch of episodes is no exception, with everyone getting to watch Mon Mothma’s teenage daughter get married in a traditional (and quite decadent) Chandrilan ceremony. 

These first three episodes of Andor’s second and final season bring plenty of intrigue, sniping, and back-channeling, even beyond the wedding. But the marriage of Mon Mothma’s daughter feels just as high-stakes as the show’s galactic-level conflict. What feels so fun about the whole affair is how much we get of Chandrilan traditions — cheering “Sagrona!” before a speech, or the groom telling the father of the bride he will not return the ceremonial knife.

This is Chandrilan culture at its most baroque and high-end, tradition resurrected in a way that apparently even they seldom see anymore. For Genevieve O’Reilly, who plays Mon Mothma, all that byzantine tradition spoke volumes about how Mon became who she is today. 

“W​​hat was so extraordinary about the opportunity to have the wedding is it revealed a culture, and therefore a history,” O’Reilly told Polygon at a junket ahead of release. “So it was really very revealing for me to get to step into that world, in regard to how it makes sense of character when you understand a history, a tradition, and familial practice.”

The idea for the plot sprang from show creator Tony Gilroy’s own life: “I was going to a lot of weddings when I was writing it; my son’s friends were getting married,” he told Polygon. “Who wouldn’t want to make up a wedding ritual?” 

For Gilroy, the structure of the season all flowed out of that choice: The three days of the wedding ceremony would define the timelines of the other stories, and eventually how each season’s three-episode arc would follow our characters over the years. He worked with production designer Luke Hull to carve out what would be feasible in terms of sets and let costume designer Michael Wilkinson cook on all the traditional wedding looks. 

And Gilroy brought back “Niamos!”, the absolute banger of a club track from season 1, for true party vibes. “We’re sort of saying that ‘Niamos!’ is a galactic hit,” he said. “So we wanted to do a really hardcore mix on it. We just brought all those pieces in and then let the rest of the team go to work.” 

Of course, “Niamos!” here isn’t being used for freewheeling club bacchanalia, at least not for Mon. Rather, it’s used here the way the soundtrack for 2025 is recession pop: Sometimes you need to dance and catch a vibe. 

In this case, Mon’s vibe is a hopeless one. She’s just learned that her childhood friend will be killed in the name of the rebellion, and she’s feeling more isolated and out of control than ever. 

“She is only effective to the rebellion if she maintains composure and diplomacy,” O’Reilly said. “From that very first scene [in season 1], you meet her in this world of Andor where you understand that she’s a deeply composed, structured woman, publicly, perpetually juggling balls of chaos.”  

“I think she’s dancing to keep from screaming there,” Gilroy followed up. “She’s in a pretty remarkably dark hole when she hits that dance floor.” 

That is, of course, by design. For Gilroy, the wedding presented the perfect opportunity to layer in tension and isolation like butter in dough. “You always want scenes that do more than one thing. So there’s a lot of sneaky scenes in there that are not just showing you a ritual, or just being sort of eccentric in their way. They’re also doing other things.” 

And, truly, what better place to navigate a range of emotions than a wedding?

The first three episodes of Andor season 2 are now on Disney Plus. New episodes are released (in batches of three) every Tuesday.