After already ruling one corner of the Star Wars galaxy as Supreme Leader Snoke, Andy Serkis has now revealed he felt “slightly worried” about returning once again through Andor. Serkis first entered the franchise as the sinister First Order leader in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. But his unexpected 2022 comeback in Andor apparently came with one major fear: that fans might draw strange connections between his new role and Snoke himself.

Speaking to Variety about returning to the Star Wars universe after playing Snoke, Andy Serkis admitted he initially feared fans might create “weird connections” between his old and new characters. However, the actor explained that his concerns quickly faded after meeting Andor creator Tony Gilroy, whose darker political approach to storytelling deeply impressed him. Serkis especially praised the series for exploring themes of fascism through the lens of Star Wars, calling the concept “incredible.”

"I just thought [the fans] might think there was a weird connection to this new character that I was playing, but when I met with Tony Gilroy, I just loved where he was coming from with this story," Serkis told Variety.

Within the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Supreme Leader Snoke emerged as the sinister ruler of the First Order, pulling Kylo Ren deeper into darkness while hunting the last traces of the Jedi legacy. For years, fandoms theorised Snoke could secretly be an ancient Sith like Darth Plagueis, before the franchise revealed him as a calculated scientific creation tied to the Sith’s larger plan for power.

And while Serkis once ruled the darker side of the galaxy as Snoke, Andor eventually gave the actor a completely different battlefield inside the Star Wars universe.

Andor reshaped modern Star Wars television

Far away from lightsaber-heavy spectacle, Andor arrived as a darker political thriller set before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, quickly transforming into one of the franchise’s most critically praised chapters. Following Season 2’s release in April 2025, the series officially became the highest-rated Star Wars show on Rotten Tomatoes. Led by Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, the powerhouse cast also included Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O'Reilly, Denise Gough, Ben Mendelsohn, Alan Tudyk, and Andy Serkis as the fan-favourite Kino Loy.

Rather than crashing after premiere hype, Andor only grew louder through word-of-mouth momentum. The Season 2 finale stormed Nielsen’s streaming charts with 931 million minutes viewed in a single week, while the series reportedly generated more than $300 million in global subscriber revenue for Disney+. Behind the scenes, Serkis later described portraying Snoke as a “massive challenge,” especially as the villain’s eerie design constantly evolved before the franchise finally revealed him as a genetically engineered strandcast created by Emperor Palpatine.

Thus, Serkis’ fear that fandoms might connect Snoke to his Andor return seemingly dissolved into admiration instead, as audiences embraced both characters in entirely different ways across the Star Wars universe.

What are your thoughts on Andy Serkis returning to Star Wars after playing Snoke? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Lisa Roy

Edited by

Itti Mahajan