Kyle Soller and Denise Gough talk about what motivates their villainous characters in the upcoming Star Wars series Andor. Both Soller and Gough will be making their debuts in the Star Wars universe, with the pair mostly known for their work in theater, with Soller winning an Olivier Award for his 2019 performance in The Inheritance, and Gough scoring a Tony nomination for her work in Angels in America in 2018. Andor is set to premiere on September 21 with a 12-episode first season.
Andor takes place five years before the events of Rogue One and follows Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he joins the growing Rebel Alliance. Soller and Gough play Imperial officers bent on capturing Andor to stop his part in the rebellion and be recognized by the Galactic Empire. Andor has already been renewed for a second and final season that'll bridge the timeline with Rogue One.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, both Soller and Gough explain what motivates their characters to want to capture Andor. Both actors talk about how their characters want to move up the ranks of the Empire and to get the attention they crave, they have to capture Andor. They also both say how their characters have strong moral cores, but due to their ambition, they'll put their energy into the Empire rather than help the rebels. Read their quotes below:
Kyle Soller: Syril is working in a kind of bureaucratic sector of the Imperial constellation, except he's on the very far reaches of the galaxy that we know as Star Wars, where the Empire doesn't really have a very big influence yet. And he is struggling to make his way up the ranks because what he sees all around him is incompetence and bad business-ship, bad colleagues, and bad bosses.
He has quite a strong moral core, and that's what attracted me most about the character. In one sense, he could be lending his strong moral character and his sense of right and wrong to the Rebel Alliance, but he's actually choosing— because of his history, his past and his pain, and his circumstances in life—to throw that energy into the Empire. As a result, he's power hungry. He is desperate for recognition, desperate for things to change, and desperate to capture Cassian Andor.
Denise Gough: When we meet her, she's working for the ISB... Dedra is super ambitious, so I don't think you could ever have considered if Dedra had used her powers for good. I don't think she was ever gonna go down that route; she wants to be part of the most powerful organization in the world. And so the way to do that is to prove yourself by doing something that somebody else isn't doing. And that is catching Cassian Andor—or at least putting everything together so that she can make the ISB really aware of this person.But she's surrounded by lazy, slouching, corner-cutting boys. And she doesn't like it, so she's going to climb the ranks at whatever cost to everyone else.
It hasn't been revealed how the two villains will go about their mission, either in tandem or in conflict with one another, but nevertheless, it's interesting to see how the two actors are taking similar approaches to play their characters. The hype for Andor is understandably high, but Star Wars has had difficulties creating memorable villains in recent years, especially in their small screen shows. With Soller and Gough being on the same page with their motivations, hopefully, it'll create an interesting dynamic for the pair.
With the underwhelming reception to The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi, there's confidence that Andor can return to the same heights as The Mandalorian in terms of critical reception and audience response. With a commitment to bolder storytelling and more coherent character arcs, Andor could do just that. With two actors relatively inexperienced in screen performance, both Soller and Gough can create antagonists that really make a unique splash in the Star Wars canon and can reach the lofty ambitions that Andor intends to live up to.