The creatively cruel ways the Empire tortures Rebels have been vividly showcased on Andor, like floors with the power to fry people. But there’s none more disturbing than Imperial Security Bureau officer Dedra Meero’s weapon of choice: headphones that play the sounds of a species that can transmit their painful death rattles to any living thing through their cries.
Yeah, that one has risen as one of the darkest methods ever featured in Star Wars, and in a recently interview with /Film, Andor’s supervising sound editor David Acord shared that the sound itself was actually created for the show. “When that scene came up, it was like, ‘Oh, okay, well…’ It’s daunting, for sure, that we had to come up with a sound that is, ‘What’s the sound that would literally be used to torture somebody with?’ So we came up with a lot of ideas of, ‘What do these creatures sound like that they’re emulating?’ Or maybe it’s, we come up with a more surrealistic thing of, ‘What does the sound make the characters feel like? ‘What is that sound?’”
Ultimately, however, it was decided that the sound would not be played on-screen. “It was Tony [Gilroy] who said, ‘No, we don’t want to hear it. The audience doesn’t hear it, and let [actor] Adria Arjona carry that scene. So we go to complete silence once the headphones go on, and it’s just her breathing, and just sort of that terror in her eyes, and that build up to that scream, that sells it,” he said. “And it’s that absolute silence all around her, and it’s feeling her terror in that moment of just … because I think the audience is expecting to hear something in that moment, and then when you don’t, it immediately kicks in your own imagination into like, ‘Oh God, what is she hearing? What is this?’ And your own imagination is going to be far more terrifying or interesting on an individual basis than anything that we would create. So it is effective.”
It was definitely one of the most chilling moments that we’ve seen on Andor so far, and we have the feeling that Dedra Meero is just getting started.
Andor streams on Wednesdays on Disney+.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.
