Andor Season 2 Showrunner on Why Andy Serkis Didn’t Return

Andor series creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy explained in a new interview why Andy Serkis’ Kino Loy didn’t appear in Andor Season 2. In Season 1, Serkis portrays Kino, whose ultimate fate was left unclear. Notably, Serkis has also provided the voice for Supreme Leader Snoke in the sequel trilogy: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

Tony Gilroy on why Andy Serkis’ Kino Loy wasn’t in Andor Season 2

Gilroy addressed Kino’s absence in Andor Season 2 during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining that he felt the story of Serkis’ character got an ending that they couldn’t improve upon in Season 2.

“Andy dropped the mic, man,” Gilroy said. “What am I going to do that’s going to be better than what we did? All it does is minimize that moment. I knew a lot of people were talking about whether we had a way of [bringing him back]. But I didn’t want to have that sort of coincidental environment,” he added.

Andor introduces Kino in Season 1 Episode 8. He is a human male serving a prison sentence in Narkina 5. He serves as a floor manager, overseeing the day shift work of his fellow inmates at Unit Five-Two-D. Kino only has less than a year left in his sentence when he joins forces with Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor to lead a prisoner rebellion. Using the intercom system of the facility, Kino speaks to other prisoners and urges them to escape the island prison.

However, he reveals to Cassian that he can’t swim shortly before being surrounded by other prisoners. Although the series doesn’t actively reveal his fate, it is implied that he either perished or was put back in prison.

Andor serves as a prequel series to 2016’s Rogue One and depicts the story of Cassian Andor before he sets out to find more information about the Empire’s new superweapon, the Death Star.