Andy Serkis Talks About His New STAR WARS Character in ANDOR and How He's Different From Snoke

Andy Serkis made his way back into the Star Wars universe in the new Lucasfilm series Andor, but this time he’s playing a completely different character. The actor made his Star Wars debut as the villain Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The character was killed off in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but there was always a chance that Serkis could return to the franchise as a different character because Snoke was a CGI creation.

Serkis’ new character is named Kino Loy, an inmate on Narkina 5 who oversaw the work of other prisoners in Unit Five-Two-D as their manager. This character is so much more interesting than Snoke! Oh, what a difference good writing makes.

The two characters are so plainly different from each other, but the actor was asked by /Film in an interview how playing Kino compares to playing Snoke, and this was his reply:

“Well, you can't really compare them, in a way. They're so entirely different. I loved playing Snoke. Snoke was a great character to play. I never thought I'd be coming back into the universe to play another character, but when Tony Gilroy approached me and said, ‘Look, will you come and play Kino Loy?’ I was like, ‘Is this going to be confusing to everybody?’ There are so many Snoke theories flying about, is this really just going to throw fuel on the fire? I really didn't want to go down that road. But I really was such a big fan of Rogue One, and Tony's description of the character of Kino Loy, it was so endearing in a way, because here was this man who actually really cares about the greater good, who is now incarcerated and loses touch with himself and becomes very cold hearted and just wants to survive and just look after number one.

“Then [he] goes back on the reverse journey when he comes into touch with Cassian Andor and finds his common humanity again. I think that journey is really interesting. The world of the Rogue One, it feels so gritty, and real, and human, and complex. Unlike the world that Snoke lives in, which is very much about the dark and the light, this is much more about the gray areas of the Star Wars universe.”

I honestly would have never linked this new character Kino to Snoke. I don’t think that would have ever been a big problem. I really like Serkis’s character in Andor and the way his story arc is playing out is wonderful and intriguing. I’m looking forward to seeing how this character’s arc continues to play out.

Andor has been such a great TV show! Tony Gilroy’s writing is so good! This is easily one of the best Star Wars projects that we’ve seen in years, and I hope we see more Star Wars projects that are this good!