Andor Cast on Creating New Star Wars Villains

With the first three episodes of Andor come a couple of new Star Wars villains to make Cassian’s life difficult as he begins lighting the fire for the Rebel Alliance seen truly popping off in Rogue One: A Story Wars Story. New to the fold are Kyle Soller and Denise Gough, who check in as the Imperial Army’s Deputy Inspector Syril Karn and Imperial Security Bureau’s security advisor Dedra Meero. Soller and Gough connected with ComicBook.com for an exclusive interview, shedding insights on their characters which have now debuted in the Andor series and sharing some of the most epic parts of joining Star Wars. 

Soller’s Syril Karn is quite a foil to Cassian Andor, serving as a detective of sorts constantly following leads and looking to squash any who oppose the Imperial ways. Despite those motives falling in line with many Star Wars villains before his, Soller wanted to do something completely original. “I really wanted to just find a completely new character, but that’s also what Tony [Gilroy] had written was just a completely new character I’d never seen in Star Wars before,” Soller said. “All these Star Wars characters are, they’re based on life, they’re based on archetypes, they’re based on things that we know from our own humanity and I think what Tony created with Syril and also Dedra, really three-dimensional kind of villains that are conflicted. Syril’s probably more conflicted than Dedra but those great villains in Star Wars, though, they live in the walls, I think, when you’re on the set anyway. So, they’re probably in there somewhere.”

For Soller, joining the Star Wars world went beyond seeing himself on the screen as an Imperial villain. In fact, one of the first looks at his character came from a LEGO minifigure in a new Andor play set. This is when Soller’s friend reached out and shared the first look with him. “I’ve got a very good family friend who’s really into Star Wars and really into LEGO and he’s got all the stuff,” Soller said. “And he just sent me this screenshot of linking all the dots and all the arrows, he’s like, ‘From the teaser trailer, this is you.’ And I was like are you telling me that I’m a LEGO? And I had a meltdown, like, I don’t really know where I can go from here, though, ’cause it’s like Star Wars and also LEGO. I’m the really cool uncle right now for my seven year old nephew I think I’m good.”

Gough added to Soller’s excitement. “And when I first saw Kyle in his costume, I was like, ‘Oh my God, you look like a little toy,’” she said. “He looked like a LEGO, in that greenish one, in the green with those boots!” Gough joked that the duo would keep their distance from the rest of the actors on set, separating themselves from the “dirty” rebels, something that if it were true her Dedra Meero character would seemingly approve of!

“Dedra being a woman is just such a bigger deal than I could have thought,” Gough explained. “When I sat on one of my first days and I’m in that huge room and there’s 30 men sitting around and one very quiet other woman who didn’t speak and I thought, she’s just like, ‘I am going to get to the top of this because I refuse to be…’ There’s another character whose lazy, he’s lazy and he’s messy, like his Imperial officer uniform is messy and she can’t bear it. She’s so excellent, Dedra, that she just happens to be in a fascist regime. Characters like this are quite dangerous, you know, it’s like, ‘God, she would have been great in the rebels but they’re just too dirty.’”

What do you think of the first three episodes of Andor? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Twitter! Andor is available now on Disney+!