Andy Serkis Returns to Star Wars in Surprise ‘Andor’ Role

It’s always nice to see a familiar face in Andor, even if that face… looks nothing like the face you remember. And it’s also hard to describe the situation that Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) finds himself in as “nice” no matter how famliar the face or voice. That’s the case in this week’s Andor, an episode that drops our lead character into the hellish sterility of an Imperial prison. And who does he meet in that prison? SPOILERS ahead!

Yes, that is Andy Serkis playing Andor’s prison boss Kino Loy. You no doubt recognize Andy Serkis’ face from his roles as Ulysses Klaue in Black Panther and Avengers: Age of Ultron as well as Alfred in The Batman. However, Serkis is way more famous for roles where you don’t see his face. He provided the voice and motion capture performance for iconic characters like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes films, and Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Yeah, this is Serkis’ second go ’round in the Star Wars universe. He played Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, films set roughly 40 years after his appearance in Andor as Kino Loy.

Please, please note: this does not mean that Kino Loy will eventually lose all his hair, grow a few feet in height, and suffer a ton of injuries to the face. Kino Loy is not Snoke. Remember, Snoke was literally a puppet created by Emperor Palpatine so he could rule the galaxy as the leader of the First Order from afar. Andy Serkis pulling double duty is just a fun little quirk of the franchise, one enabled by the fact that we’ve previously only heard Serkis’ voice and never seen his face in Star Wars.

But Serkis isn’t the only familiar face in the prison on Narkina 5 — and the other familiar face is actually who you think it is… if you noticed him in the first place.

Who is Melshi on Andor?

Andor is introduced to Melshi (Duncan Pow) when he finds his table assignment in the prison on Narkina 5. Melshi is one of six other prisoners that form Andor’s unit, meaning that they work together building Imperial weapons at a brisk pace or face some rather painful consequences. Melshi quickly proves himself to be at the very least respectful of Andor under these trying circumstances. When a fellow prisoner calls Andor “new guy,” Melshi corrects him, reminding him that the “new guy’s” name is Keef. Okay, actually it’s Andor, but Andor was arrested while he was vacationing at a resort under the alias Keef. So, Keef he is.

Melshi will be familiar to those of you who have watched Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on repeat. Melshi is one of the Rebel soldiers who banded together with Andor and the squad that would become Rogue One for their assault on Scarif.

This is a fun call-forward and it adds a whole lot to this three-episode arc of Andor. At least we now know that Andor has a potential ally by his side on Narkina 5, and we know that Cassian won’t be the only prisoner to get out of this prison alive.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens to both Kino and Melshi on next week’s episode of Andor. And if Kino gets zapped by prison guards so hard that his skin melts and hair falls out… well, I will accept that I’m wrong about him not being Snoke and move on.