Sequel Trilogy Actor Reportedly Returning to ‘Star Wars’ Next Year

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Snoke and Rey in 'The Last Jedi'

Credit: Lucasfilm

December 2021 will bring the next installment of Lucasfilm’s small-screen adventures with Robert Rodriguez’s The Book of Boba Fett starring Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett) and Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand), ahead of more releases next year.

2022 (hopefully) sees the debut of Deborah Chow’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Tony Gilroy’s Andor. The latter includes the return of Diego Luna as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) star, Cassian Andor, and, rumor has it, a sequel trilogy actor will also be joining Luna in the upcoming series.

Andor in Rogue One (2016)
Credit: Lucasfilm

Following JJ Abrams Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), which launched Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy, a standalone movie was released to commercial and critical success. The film boasted a stellar cast of Felicity Jones (Jyn Erso), Forest Whitaker (Saw Gerrera), Alan Tudyk (K-2SO), Ben Mendelsohn (Orson Krennic), Donnie Yen (Chirrut Îmwe), Mads Mikkelsen (Galen Erso), Riz Ahmed (Bodhi Rook), Jiang Wen (Baze Malbus), and the aforementioned Luna as Cassian Andor.

star wars rogue one jyn erso cassian andor
Credit: Lucasfilm

Four years later, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced the new live-action series, Andor as a rousing spy thriller. So far, Star Wars fans know that Andor will be set five years before Rogue One with Genevieve O’Reilly returning as Mon Mothma, as well as featuring Star Wars newcomers Stellan Skarsgård (Dune), Denise Gough (Monday), and Kyle Soller (Anna Karenina). Mendelsohn’s villain, Orson Krennic is also rumored to reappear for the series, and Whitaker’s Rebel Partisan leader, Saw Gerrera, is confirmed.

Forest Whitaker as saw gerrera
Credit: Lucasfilm

However, according to a new report, sequel trilogy actor, Andy Serkis, is rumored to return for the upcoming Star Wars series. Serkis first appeared in Abrams’ The Force Awakens as Supreme Leader Snoke. Seemingly set up as the sequel trilogy’s major antagonist, Rian Johnson’s polarizing Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi (2017) upturned the Star Wars galaxy when it killed off the villain amid a confrontation with Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver).

kylo ren kneeling before snoke
Credit: Lucasfilm

The new report claims:

I’ve heard Andy Serkis was cast in Star Wars: Andor for Disney+ […] Andy Serkis has said his death in The Last Jedi was a good idea but he was disappointed to see his role end and his death come a whole film before he expected it. I’m sure, if what I’m hearing is accurate, that must lessen the burn a little.

supreme leader snoke in the sequel trilogy
Credit: Lucasfilm

The character, as well as the sequel trilogy as a whole, is a contentious part of Star Wars history. When Abrams returned to the helm of Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (2019), he brought back the original and prequel trilogy big bad, Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Since the arrival of the famous Galactic Empire leader in the Skywalker Saga conclusion, Star Wars has been trying to add weight to his resurrection and role as orchestrator of Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order.

Snoke getting killed with lightsaber
Credit: Lucasfilm

Star Wars fans have seen hints of a greater cloning purpose in shows like Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian with Dr. Pershing and Grogu AKA “Baby Yoda”, as well as being directly referenced at the end of Dave Filoni’s Star Wars: The Bad Batch when Nala Se (Gwendoline Yeo) was removed from Kamino before its destruction and transported to Mount Tantiss. The location was a huge part of the Star Wars Legends franchise, directly connecting to the evil Grand Admiral Thrawn as mentioned in canon by Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) in The Mandalorian, and to Sheev Palpatine’s secretive storehouses and cloning facilities.

the bad batch mount tantiss
Credit: Lucasfilm

With The Bad Batch being set directly around the aftermath of Order 66’s execution in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Andor set just five years before Rogue One and therefore Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977), there are big chances that early incarnations of Palpatine’s AKA Darth Sidious’ cloning experiments could appear in the new series, long before his demise on the Death Star at the hands of Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) father, Darth Vader (Dave Prowse/James Earl Jones).

This holds weight when we turn to the new Star Wars book, Star Wars: Secrets of the Sith (2021) by Marc Sumerak and Sergio Gómez Silván, which explains Snoke’s origins and also confirms that Vader’s former master’s acolytes had performed “years of experimentation” prior to Snoke’s formation — it also gave the first canon look of Darth Plagueis. That being said, Serkis is a talented actor and motion capture performer meaning if he does return it could be in a completely new capacity.

supreme leader snoke in the sequel trilogy
Credit: Lucasfilm

Andor will join other shows like the Ahsoka Tano series, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobiboth of which see the return of Anakin Skywalker actor, Hayden Christensen –, The Mandalorian Season 3, and Star Wars: Acolyte, among others, in Lucasfilm’s ever-growing Star Wars slate. Andor recently wrapped filming and is expected sometime in 2022.

Would you like to see Andy Serkis back as Snoke or another Palpatine clone? Let us know in the comments below!

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