Andy Serkis Also Doesn’t Know What the Future Holds for Him on ‘Star Wars: Andor’

Everyone on the internet who is watching Star Wars: Andor has one question after the most recent episode: What happened to Kino Loy? The last we saw of him, he was left standing and looking down at the freedom that he couldn’t attain because if he jumped into the waters below, he’d drown. And before we could get any answers on what Cassian was going to do to try to help him, he was pushed down to the water by his fellow prisoners.

So on one hand, we could assume that the same thing happened to Kino Loy and that he drowned. On the other hand, we can pretend like he’s fine and we’ll see him at some other point in Star Wars. But since that future is up in the air, a lot of questions have been asked about Loy’s arc as a whole in the show, and where it could go if he survived the escape.

The prison arc, as a whole, is something everyone is talking about, and even in our own interview with Beau Willimon (who wrote the episodes featuring Kino Loy), we talked about the ending for the character and why it hurts but also works for the story. So it isn’t surprising that in an interview with Collider, Andy Serkis also talked a lot about the arc for him as an actor.

“Yeah, I mean, that was one of the great things about having that arc. And obviously, as an actor, I knew that I was going to arrive at that point. And so that’s why I wanted to make him sort of bullish and really kind of unsympathetic early on,” Serkis said. “Then actually the effect of Cassian and he going head-to-head, and then the moment of realization that they’re never going to ever be released. And that’s sort of reigniting his humanity in a way. Then really in Episode 10, he goes on this journey, which is absolutely part of his core belief system, that the power of the individual can help others, and if you unite, you can change the shape of the future. That comes flooding back to him, and you actually see the process of that happening, which ends up with the kind of sacrifice, if you like, in that scene at the end.”

“I can’t swim.”

Serkis went on to talk about the line that broke me as a person. It comes when freedom is in front of them and we see Cassian turn to look at Loy and know that something is wrong, and learning that Kino Loy cannot swim and there is only “one way out” was truly a shock.

So Serkis talked about trying the line different ways to see how it would work before ultimately ending with the version we get in the series. “We tried it in different ways, we tried that line in lots of different ways, of him almost being angry without being too sentimental, kind of seeing his own doom,” Serkis said. “We tried it, and then eventually we sort of settled into this area of his almost coming to terms with it. I think that moment of pathos probably was the way to go. It was a really explorative scene to do, and especially for me, for my character. But it was an amazing scene to shoot with everybody diving off, and jumping to freedom, and just this sort of sense of vertigo, and fear, and phobia of war. Yeah, it was an interesting layer, a very interesting layer to play.” 

Is this the end though?

In speaking with Collider, it seemed as if Serkis hadn’t thought any further into this future as Kino Loy. When asked if Tony Gilroy pitched the series to him as three episodes or if there was a change for more Kino Loy, Serkis replied, “Oh wow, I hadn’t thought of that. I mean, the thing is, yeah, that would be an amazing thing. I don’t know what the future holds for Kino Loy. Who knows? He might be stuck on that ship, or whatever, I don’t know. But let’s see. I haven’t had any discussions yet. But I don’t know, we’ll have to see what everybody thinks of it and the outcome.”

And he did go on to say that it’d be fun to come back to: “Look, even if Kino Loy goes no further, the short answer to your question is yeah, that would be a thrilling thing to do, to be part of the other side of it, on the other side of the camera for this world would be amazing.”

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Personally, I hope that’s not the end for Kino Loy. I loved getting to see actual Andy Serkis’ face in Star Wars, but until we know more, we can always just hold out hope, right?

(featured image: Lucasfilm)