Now, THX 1138 is a bleak, minimalist sci-fi film set in a society where humans are medicated into emotional numbness and controlled by robotic enforcers.
Duvall plays THX, a worker who begins to question his reality after going off his mandatory emotion-suppressing drugs. It’s a haunting film, and it marked the first time Lucas started exploring the themes of rebellion, identity, and authoritarian control.
This isn’t the first time THX 1138 has slipped into the Star Wars galaxy either. Back in A New Hope, Luke mentions being transferred from “Cell Block 1138.” Clone Marshal Commander Bacara, who shows up in Revenge of the Sith and The Clone Wars, carries the designation CC-1138.
It’s become a quiet tradition for Lucasfilm to slip these references in for those who know where to look.
But this latest callback in Andor feels especially fitting. The series has always been Star Wars at its most grounded and politically charged, which is exactly the kind of sci-fi THX 1138 was wrestling with decades earlier.
With Andor, showrunner Tony Gilroy continues to build a bridge between Lucas’ earliest dystopian vision and the rebellion that changed cinema.
