A rumor has surfaced that actor Andy Serkis has been cast in Star Wars: Andor. Serkis, who is most famous for his portrayal of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is no stranger to the Star Wars franchise. In fact, Andor would mark his third return to the series. He has previously played the part of Supreme Leader Snoke in both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Andor, created by Tony Gilroy, is one of many upcoming Star Wars TV shows being produced for Disney+. The series acts as a prequel to spinoff movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Diego Luna reprises Cassian Andor on the show, and he's joined by a talented cast that also includes the likes of Stellan Skarsgård, Anton Valensi, Adria Arjona, and more. Andor sees Star Wars veteran Genevieve O'Reilly return as Mon Mothma, and there could be another familiar face coming back as well.
According to Making Star Wars, Serkis has joined the Andor cast. It is unknown if he is playing his Star Wars sequel trilogy role of Supreme Leader Snoke, or portraying an entirely new character. Screen Rant has reached out to Disney and Serkis' publicist for comment, and will update this article accordingly.
Should this turn out to be true, it'll be interesting to see how large a role Serkis has on Andor. He's been quite busy recently, appearing in Marvel's What If...? and wrapping production on The Batman. He was also working as director for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which released this fall to mixed reviews. Given Serkis' workload, he may have only had time to appear in a cameo capacity. That said, it's worth noting The Batman finished filming in March, and Andor didn't wrap until September, so there wasn't too much overlap there. Depending on how Serkis' schedule panned out, he likely had time to shoot a small part - similar to Snoke in the sequel movies.
It is difficult to speculate on who Serkis may be portraying. The odds of him appearing as Snoke are low, since the events of Andor take place several years before the sequel trilogy. However, it is a possibility, especially if Lucasfilm wants to use the show to fill in the gaps between the Star Wars original and sequel trilogies (a la The Mandalorian). Of course, since Serkis is well-known for his excellent character acting abilities and is a pioneer of motion-capture, he could be introduced as an entirely new figure in the Star Wars galaxy. Perhaps he could even appear in the flesh, as opposed to playing a digital character. Marvel has seen actors play dual roles, so there's precedent for this.
Source: Making Star Wars
