Star Wars Finally Confirms Fan Favorite Character’s Fate

This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: Andor season one.

By this point, we should stop being surprised by the surprises in Star Wars: Andor. What initially seemed like an unnecessary sequel to a prequel to the original trilogy, which itself was a sequel to the prequel trilogy, ultimately became a thoughtful piece of sci-fi storytelling. Instead of following the current Star Wars model of regularly bringing cartoon characters to live action, Andor used the rise of the Galactic Empire to explore notions of resistance, oppression, and, yes, space communism.

So while things looked pretty bad for Andy Serkis‘s reluctant labor leader Kino Loy, recent comments suggest that he may be back. We first met Loy midway through the first season, when Diego Luna‘s Cassian Andor was sentenced to imprisonment in Narkina 5. The floor manager of the unit to which Andor is assigned, Kino is initially confident in the justice system. Despite Andor’s objections, Kino believes that if he and his men continue following prison rules, they’ll avoid being killed by the electric floor, serve out their sentences, and be reintegrated into society.

But when Andor finally convinces him that they will be perpetually imprisoned and that the incarcerated vastly outnumber the guards, Kino becomes an unlikely leader in the resistance. When we last see Kino, he’s successfully guided the prisoners outside of the prison walls, urging them all to dive into the water before revealing that he cannot swim.

Based on that scene, it was reasonable to assume that Kino’s story had ended and that Andor would find new comrades in the galactic struggle. But Andor creator Tony Gilroy recently assured fans that there was more to Kino’s story. “Well, he didn’t die,” Gilroy said flatly, speaking with Entertainment Tonight. But Gilroy doesn’t spill anymore, partially because he has nothing to spill. “I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t die,” the director admitted. “We never see him die”

Serkis himself took it one step further, reasoning that, “If he jumped, that would be the end of him and he would be out of the picture. But no, he’s alive and working out his next move.” And from the actor’s feelings about the first season, it’s clear that he would like to see more Kino as well. “It’s incredibly gratifying to know that the writing [resonated],” he continued. “But the fact that people are responding [and are] emotionally engaged in these characters and every single one is so well written and complex… It means something.”

At this point, it’s still unclear what Kino will be doing in Andor‘s second season, let alone if he’ll return in a major way, but Lucasfilm did include Serkis’ name among the cast in a press release, and actor Adria Arjona, who plays Bix Caleen on the show, let slip that the second season will have “time jumps in order for us to get to Rogue One.” That means there’s still plenty of space for Kino to return.

But really, we should stop trying to guess what Andor‘s next season will look like and instead just enjoy the surprise.