The Anti-Fascist Narrative of Star Wars

Star Wars has always been about telling the narrative of the oppressed and is inherently antifascist. This is why it came as a shock to me when I read a recent interview with Tony Gilroy, the creator of the Star Wars TV show spinoff Andor (2025). 

In this interview, Gilroy explained how Disney asked him to refrain from using the words fascism or genocide when promoting the show within the first year of its season two release. For anyone unfamiliar with Andor, this might seem reasonable: fascism and genocide are big topics, and a TV show about spaceships and lightsabers must not be the best vehicle to cover these issues. However, for the Star Wars series in general, but especially for Andor, this apolitical depiction of the show is patently untrue. In fact, the show artfully depicts how a government rises to fascism, and how people in positions of power can twist the truth to deny events as big as genocide. The rise of a fascist power in the Star Wars universe is the whole premise of the show! 

The fascism depicted in Andor, along with its 2025 release, seem particularly resonant with the American political climate, but Gilroy clarified that this was merely an unfortunate coincidence: “I don’t think it’s prescience so much as the sad familiarity of fascism and the karaoke menu of things that you go through to do it. You could list them from the show, or you could list them from the newspaper.” In this way, Andor is the perfect example of Star Wars’ timeless portrayal of fascism. It will always seem timely because authoritarian governments will always come back to the same playbook. 

Filming for the very first franchise movie, simply titled Star Wars, began in 1976, only a year after the end of the Vietnam War. George Lucas, the writer and director, was very cognizant of this as he set out to create what would become a genre-defining space opera. Lucas has stated in several interviews that he viewed the Rebel Alliance as a metaphor for the Viet Cong—the resistance fighters in the Vietnam War. Their opposition, the Empire (the fascist power that rules over the galaxy), thus, is a metaphor for American imperialism. Star Wars is not merely a representation of the Vietnam War, but rather an amalgamation of many different stories of fascism and authoritarianism from the past and the present. 

Much of Star Wars is also based on elements of Nazi Germany. One obvious example is the Stormtroopers, named after the real German soldiers of the same name. In the same vein, much of the imagery of the Empire is based on Nazi imagery; for example, in A New Hope, the imperial officials wear uniforms reminiscent of Nazi uniforms. 

Another striking visual is 2015’s The Force Awakens, where we are introduced to the First Order (a name that bears obvious similarity to the Third Reich). In this movie, the influence of Nazi imagery on Star Wars is evident. One particularly striking scene depicts a large clearing of Stormtroopers in formation, facing a large red flag with a black symbol on it—here, the symbol of the First Order is an obvious stand-in for Nazi swastikas.

Star Wars is a massive franchise consisting of 11 movies, several TV shows, video games, and much more—both official and fan-created.  It has reached millions worldwide. Come Halloween or Purim, children can be seen dressed up as the franchise’s characters. These characters seem like random choices to the families that purchase these costumes each year, but they are actually a visual representation of how we have become apathetic to fascism. At some point between 1977, when the first film was released, and now, something got lost: We stopped noticing the fascism that Star Wars illuminated and started consuming it. The question I’m left with is: Why did we stop noticing fascism in Star Wars? And, more importantly, what does this tell us about how we need to look at the real world, beyond Star Wars?

In the present day, people seem willing to overlook the warnings against fascism that are depicted in Star Wars in favor of consumerism. This is particularly ironic for me when it comes to people dressing as Star Wars villains for Purim. The very premise of the holiday is a celebration of thwarting the system. While Purim isn’t necessarily an antifascist narrative, it is about someone who is in a position where they have the power to abuse others (Haman) and direct it against a group. Then, the day is saved when Esther is able to thwart this bigoted effort by Haman. This is all to say that, on Purim of all days, we should be more conscious of how we consume media. 

While many people may think that fictional fascism is irrelevant, this can lead to people ignoring fascism in real life. Unfortunately, fascism is on the rise. This is why we must look at Star Wars through the critical lens that it was created with. We must realize that dressing children up as Darth Vader or a Storm Trooper can be fun, but what you are really doing is dressing them up as a metaphor for Nazis and American imperialists. When we do this, we are at risk of subconsciously becoming apathetic to the very real threat that fascism poses. This is why, I argue, that no instance of fascism, real or fictional, is too small to overlook. George Lucas was certainly very aware of this when he created Star Wars, and its antifascist narrative must serve as a cautionary tale for us.

Facing the realities of fascism isn’t easy. In A New Hope, our hero, Luke Skywalker, is initially resistant to going on a mission to help the Rebel Alliance. When he is prompted to go on this mission, he initially responds with apathy: “It's not that I like the Empire; I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it right now... It's all such a long way from here.” He only agrees to help when he returns home to his aunt and uncle, murdered by the Empire. Luke is forced to act when he is personally harmed by the fascist regime, but it should not take this much personal loss for us to act. Instead, we must realize that even if it feels like fascism’s threat is such a long way away, it is always on your doorstep. We must make an effort to think critically and champion the truth because, as Mon Mothma, a senator making a speech against the lies of the fascist regime, aptly says in Andor, “the death of truth is the victory of evil.”