Andy Serkis Was Dubious About Joining ‘Andor’ Over Inevitable Snoke Fan Theories
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises that Andor had in store for us was the unannounced inclusion of Andy Serkis, whose character Kino Loy became an instant fan favorite after his three-episode arc. The actor, who had already played in the Star Wars sandbox in the sequel trilogy, opened up about his experience filming in a new interview with StarWars.com.
Serkis first revealed that he was slightly dubious about taking on the role of Kino Loy because of what the fan reaction would be after he’d played Supreme Leader Snoke. He said:
“I was slightly trepidatious because when I came into it I was thinking, ‘Oh no, no, the Snoke theories are just going to go crazy! Is this Snoke? Has he come back?’”
In fact, he asks viewers to not waste any time or energy on those conversations, because they will be fruitless:
“I haven’t [read up on the Internet conversation] because I daren’t. It’s too scary! I sort of almost want to just say to everybody there really isn’t a connection there. So live your lives, please don’t spend any time going down that rabbit hole.”
The actor has said before that both characters are not related in any way, even if he would still like to further explore the Supreme Leader at some point down the line.
All of his concerns quickly went away after his meeting with showrunner Tony Gilroy:
“I was such a huge fan of Rogue One, which I absolutely adored and when we met and we talked about [the part of Kino Loy], I really just fell in love with the character.”
Shortly after accepting the job, he started coming up with a backstory for the character, to get more into his feet. He explained:
“He’s used to working on the factory floor and standing up for workers’ rights. This is a man who cares for others. And he just suddenly finds himself in a world where he has to keep his head down, not speak his truth, and just try and get through his sentence believing that he’s going be freed.”
He then added how he personally views the character as a conflicted yet determined individual:
“Here was a man who is quite forceful. He’s direct and actually he’s hardened, I think, by the harsh treatment that he’s received on Narkina 5. He’s a task master and is quite unforgiving and shuts people down and is almost a bully, in a way. But the system is all about competition. The way that the floor is run, it’s about beating other people. And if you’re not, then you get electrocuted. It’s punishment or reward and the rewards are meager.”
He also expanded upon Kino’s relationship with Cassian, and how the two learned from each other throughout the three-episode arc:
“What was exciting was to have Kino Loy [and Cassian] gradually become united. It was creating a character who’s been toughened and then through Cassian’s desire to stand up for others, it reignites in him this journey to actually speaking his truth again. And I think that toughness at the beginning was set up on purpose to then break down gradually as he begins to find himself, once he realizes that there is absolutely no point in believing anymore that being released is an option. He reaches a moment of enlightenment really cruelly, and then he finds the generosity in himself again and the spirit and the desire to speak up. It was just a really beautifully crafted arc and I really enjoyed playing him.”
He added that one of the reasons why he was excited to jump on board was to have the chance to work with Diego Luna:
“That was another very strong reason why I wanted to do this because I really love Diego’s acting and I love Cassian as a character. So to have a chance to really intimately get to work together was incredible. He’s such a major talent and a brilliantly gifted actor and storyteller and really generous, a really great natural leader. He also directs, so it was lovely to have that conversation with him as well.”
Despite all of the above, Serkis did say that it was actually a hard shoot and that the conditions weren’t exactly optimal:
“The actual shooting of it was really hard because of the environment. The set was so unforgiving. The prison outfits just so unforgiving. And the whole notion of walking around on metal plates with bare feet does a very strange thing to your head. It completely sapped you of any strength. There was no personal space at all. Everything was clinical. You could see there was no relief from it and it really played with your head.”
However, Andy Serkis had nothing but praise for the set designers, as they were responsible for bringing a lot of authenticity to the shoot, and the actors were then able to feel the same pain the characters would feel:
“The set design work was just phenomenal in the way that it did make you feel like you were [in] some strange kind of experiment.
All of these things really helped to mold the character, from the writing through to the design through to the talks that we’d had. And then understanding of course that I knew where he would end up, knowing the fact that he’s never really gonna be able to get out of this even while he has to carry on inspiring others to do so. There is a lot of pathos in the role and I really enjoyed playing that but keeping him grounded at all times so it didn’t become sentimental.”
Despite Kino’s final moment on screen, where he tragically revealed he couldn’t swim, showrunner Tony Gilroy has hinted that he may not be dead after all. He did not return in episode 11, and will probably not be back for episode 12 either, given the way the narrative is now leading after the last episode. But Gilroy could be hinting at a potential return of the character in the second season, which is set to begin production within the next few days in the U.K.
Andor will be back for the season 1 finale next Wednesday. You can check out Miguel’s written review of episode 11 here, and look forward to our discussion on the finale next week.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
