Surprising casting, thankfully turns out to be great casting.
Over the past month and a half, Andor has proven itself to be a pretty excellent show, and its cast is a big reason why. In each arc thus far, Cassian (Diego Luna) has drawn in a variety of different characters into his often chaotic orbit who are, like him, trying to get by under the Empire’s rule. This most recent one has seen Cassian as an inmate on the prison colony Narkina 5, where he’s brushed shoulders with fellow inmate/semi-warden Kino Loy (Andy Serkis). The actor/director previously made his Star Wars debut with the Sequel Trilogy as Emperor Snoke, where it seemed like he was primed to be the Palpatine of those films before Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) abruptly sliced him in half during The Last Jedi. (Let’s not get into him apparently being a Palpatine husk?)
Serkis has spent the last several days talking about both his brief Snoke time and how that affected his return to the franchise. When he recently spoke to Slashfilm, he admitted to being hesitant to join the show when approached by showrunner Tony Gilroy. Primarily, those worries stemmed about fueling fan theories—”Is Kino actually playing Snoke?!”—but it was his love of Rogue One that won out. “The world of the “Rogue One,” it feels so gritty, and real, and human, and complex,” he explained. “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.”
Worries of Snoke connections aside, Serkis did confess to feeling less pressure with this show as opposed to the films.
