Andy Serkis Is ‘Amazed’ By Fan Reaction To ‘Andor’ Character Kino Loy

Although actor Andy Serkis is best known to “Star Wars” fans for playing Supreme Leader Snoke in 2015’s “The Force Awakens” and 2017’s “The Last Jedi,” he has recently become known for a new role: Kino Loy.

Serkis popped up again in the first season of the Disney+ live-action series, “Andor.” Although fans were a bit surprised to see the actor again, given his past history with the franchise, Kino Loy quickly became a fan-favorite character.

Many fans have expressed hope to see Serkis’ character again in season two, prompting the actor to say that he has been both “amazed and delighted” by the response to his “Star Wars” character.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly on their Dagobah Dispatch podcast before the SAG-AFTRA strike, Koy admitted that he was not expecting the fan response to his character. However, he said that he has “been amazed and delighted” with the reactions that fans gave to the character, praising showrunner Tony Gilroy’s “excellence in authoring these characters in the way that he has.”

He also pointed to Kino Loy’s desire for freedom resonating with audiences. “There's something very zeitgeist about the oppression that is happening in the story,” he said. “The desire for freedom is something that I think really resonates because of the world that we are living in and the oppression that we see all around us. And that's why I think he's been accepted in the way that he has been by the audiences that I've met and talked to and the people that respond to the character.”

After chanting “One Way Out” and heading out of the facility, Kino Loy broke audiences' hearts when he utters the line, “I can’t swim.” The character of Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna, is ushered away, and fans never find out if Kino Loy actually makes the leap and swims to freedom, or remains behind, facing an uncertain future.

With a second and final season scheduled for release next year, fans hope that they will get closure to Kino Loy’s story. However, Andy Serkis surprised audiences when he revealed on the podcast that they actually filmed that scene “a number of various different ways,” saying that it was a moment “that needed that kind of exploration.”

“We were lucky enough to have the time to be able to do that because shooting on a TV schedule, often it's a very quick — unlike film where you can take time between takes and you can evolve in a journey,” he explained. “But it demanded a different set of investigations into how that would be delivered. Because it was a key moment. So I was lucky enough to get the chance to explore.”

Unfortunately, Andy Serkis revealed that “There weren’t really many discussions” about Kino Loy’s fate, as the story continued to follow Andor’s journey toward the Rebellion. Serkis noted that fans never actually see him die, but prior to fans' warm response to the character, he said there were “no discussions at all” about what happens to Kino Loy.

“I was just excited enough about the arc that I had to play, which was a really beautifully crafted illustration of a man who has a belief system that gets broken that then has nothing to believe in, that then gets kind of reignited by someone who inspires him to find himself again, and then self-sacrifices,” Serkis said.

“So it was a really extraordinary journey to go on within a prison setting, and a very sterile prison setting — quite a heartfelt journey considering the environment that they're in,” he continued. “But that's the brilliance about Tony Gilroy's writing. He provides these environments for characters to thrive and survive in. And you learn about their internal journey, their psychology, their complexities and flaws in response to the world that they're in.”

In an interview on The BBC The One Show in 2022, he revealed that the set design “really messed with your head.”

Fans can listen to his full comments in the video above!