Andy Serkis' Love Of Rogue One Convinced Him To Join Andor As Kino Loy

We're eight episodes into "Andor," and the prequel series continues to be the best thing they've done in ages. This week we got another tension-filled, nail-biting installment that makes you wonder why every story in a galaxy far away can't be this good. However, the added treat was the appearance of a familiar "Star Wars" alumni turning up in an astonishing fashion to snarl and boss our hero about during his time in the slammer. It turns out Supreme Leader Snoke wasn't the last we'd see of Andy Serkis in the franchise. To quote Master Yoda, "No, there is another."

Kino Loy is the privileged prisoner (but not by a lot) of Andor's block of factory workers, ordering our hero and the rest of the inmates into their sterile hell working on machine parts. Marking as a rare exception for the master of motion capture, like his Alfred in Matt Reeves' "The Batman" recently, Loy is a character that doesn't require Serkis to wear a unitard with dots on his face. He's here investing in a human character and absolutely killing it so far in his debut to the show. So why the second stint in another area of "Star Wars" that wasn't the original role he signed up for? Well, it turns out that it's Serkis' love for the do-or-die adventure that "Andor" preludes that drew him back and gave him a chance to work in an area audiences rarely see him play around in.

Given that the last time we saw a version of Andy Serkis in "Star Wars," it was out of focus, with one half sliding away from the other like a deck chair on the Titanic, it was only natural to rule him out of the franchise for good. However, he explained to Vanity Fair what it was that called him back. "It's a difficult one because I'm sure that's exactly what people will think. And why would they think other? I was a bit confused as to whether to do it or not, but it was purely because I love Rogue One."

It was a fondness for Gareth Edwards' spin-off that opened up the kind of opportunity the man behind apes, ring obsessives, and other CGI characters that Serkis doesn't usually get. "I truly loved the grounding of that film in a world which felt both real and yet still felt epic," he explained. "Also, I'm getting to play a character at the opposite end of the spectrum of a highly powerful Supreme Leader. [Kino Loy] is someone who is a real person in this world." With four more episodes, there's no confirmation on just how long Sno ... sorry, Loy has left in "Andor," but we're guessing it'll be less than the 200+ days he has left behind bars. You don't even need to be a Jedi to see that coming, but find out for yourself when "Andor" returns next week on Disney+.