Andy Serkis teases details about his new Andor character Kino Loy

Andy Serkis has revealed new details about his character in Andor.

The 58-year-old actor who portrayed Supreme Leader Snoke in both The Last Jedi and The Force Awakens has now returned to the Star Wars universe in an entirely different role.

No longer is he playing “a highly powerful Supreme Leader”, but his new role as militant Kino Loy is “at the opposite spectrum” Serkis told Vanity Fair in a new interview.

“Loy is someone who is a real person in this world,” he explained.

Although Serkis made his debut in the latest episode – which aired on 26 October – as the commanding manager of a floating prison vessel, details about his character have remained minimal.

Serkis, however, surmised that “what I imagined of Kino’s backstory, before he was in prison, was that he was a union leader. He’s used to working as a foreman”.

“I wanted him to come from a place where he was put in prison for, perhaps, standing up for workers’ rights, and then put into a position of authority because that’s what he does,” he said.

He added: “He is a natural leader. But he really just wants to serve his time. He’s got a family. He wants to get out and get back, and assumes that that’s going to happen after his incarceration.”

When asked what drives Loy, he responded: “Obviously the electrification and the reward system. If you do well, you get flavouring with your food. If you don’t do well, you get shocked. They are like rats in a scientific experiment.

“So everyone is working just to survive and get through. He’s got basically a year left in prison and then he’s going to be set free. So he doesn’t want anything to upset that.”

Andor tells the story of Diego Luna’s Rogue One character Cassian Andor and his formative years of the Rebellion and his challenging missions for the cause.

New episodes release weekly on Wednesdays on Disney Plus.