Kino Loy

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"You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out! One way out! One way out!"

―Kino Loy —

Listen (file info)^[3]

Kino Loy was a human male incarcerated in Narkina 5 during 5 BBY. He oversaw the labours of his fellow prisoners working the day shift in Unit Five-Two-D as their Floor manager.

With less than a year left of his sentence, he organised and led a riot against the guards on Level Five with Cassian Andor, reaching the control room and inspiring a facility wide uprising in a rousing speech that completely overwhelmed the 84 men staffing the entire facility. Though many of the prisoners escaped from the complex, Loy himself remained, unable to swim in the waters surrounding the prison.

Biography[]

Meeting Cassian Andor[]

"The seven tallies are the running shift totals of all the other rooms on this floor. You play against all the other tables in this room, I play against all the other rooms."
"Play?"
"Call it what you will, the point of this conversation is that you understand one thing most clearly. I have 249 days left of my sentence. I have a free hand in how I run this room. I'm used to being on the top three on this level. You will wanna keep that happening. I'm sensing you understand me. Sick, injured, you talk to me. Problems with another inmate, I'll know before you do. Losing hope, your mind, keep it to yourself. Don't ever slow up my line. Table Five."

―Kino Loy and Cassian Andor^[1]

Narkina 5 workroom hq — Loy was the floor manager of Unit Five-Two-D.

In 5 BBY, with two hundred and forty-nine days left of his sentence, Loy was introduced to "Keef Girgo," a new prisoner who would be working in Five-Two-D. Loy explained how the system of tables and levels worked before assigning Keef to his place on Table Five, where he worked alongside Jemboc, Xaul, Taga, Ulaf, Ham, and Ruescott Melshi.^[1]

Later, Loy instructed Jemboc to explain their cells to Keef, and the prisoners became interested to know about the Public Order Resentencing Directive, a piece of Imperial legislation enacted in response to rebel activity on the planet Aldhani, which had doubled the prisoners' sentencing. Melshi, however, told Keef that it didn't matter if his number was doubled or even tripled, as the Empire would simply keep them until they didn't want them anymore and that escape was impossible. Loy, angered by Melshi's words, ordered him to stop talking before eventually pinning him to a nearby wall. Loy then returned to his cell along with the others.^[1]

Thirty-one shifts later, Loy, along with the rest of his cell block, was awoken in the night by the sound of the prisoner Veemoss stepping out of his cell and killing himself. Loy then ordered the other prisoners to go back to sleep.^[1]

Escaping Narkina 5[]

"How many guards on each level?"
"Never more than twelve."

―Kino Loy to Cassian Andor^[4]

After Ulaf's health deteriorated because of his advanced age and being overworked, he eventually had a massive stroke. While Loy and Andor were waiting for one of the prison's doctors, Rhasiv, to arrive, it was revealed that Loy had given the nickname "Uli" to the older man. When Rhasiv arrived, and after he euthanized Ulaf, he told Loy that no prisoners had been released since the P.O.R.D. was invoked. This further cemented Kino's sense of powerlessness, persuading him to help Andor escape the prison.^[4]

At the beginning of the next shift, Loy told the other prisoners that the rumors concerning Level 2 were true and that no one would be released, which meant that escaping was the only solution. While the prisoners pretended to work, Andor took a wrench and cut a water pipe, as he had attempted several shifts before. This caused a flood. As the guards sent a new man on the floor, Andor used to wrench to halt the elevator, and Loy ordered the other prisoners to attack. While the guards were overwhelmed, the prisoners, including Loy, grabbed tools from their tables to attack them. The guards eventually tried to use the metallic floors to fight back, but the water caused them to short-circuit. Loy and the other prisoners killed the guards and left Unit Five-Two-D.^[3]

ICantSwim-OneWayOut — As the prisoners jumped into the sea to escape the Narkina 5 prison complex, Loy revealed that he could not swim.

With the revolt spreading to the other floors, Loy and Andor reached the command center and forced the crew to deactivate the prison's hydro-generators. Loy used the intercom to address his fellow prisoners, telling them that they needed to escape, even if it meant that they had to die trying to take the guards down. Nevertheless, Loy urged the prisoners to help one another. The entire building heard Loy's words, and all the inmates ran to the top of the prison complex, while the remaining guards hid in fear. The prisoners jumped into the sea and swam in the hope they would reach the shores. Loy hesitated, and revealed to Andor that he could not swim. Cassian was inadvertently toppled off the edge into the water by another inmate while Loy backed away from the edge with resignation.^[3]

Personality and traits[]

KinoLoy-TravelTheGalaxy — Kino Loy was a gruff and seemingly cold, though he cared for fellow inmates.

"Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge and start climbing. They don't have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and 'I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want.' We know they fried a hundred men on Level Two. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what's happening. And now we know, that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die, and that ends today!"

―Kino Loy^[3]

As a floor manager, Kino Loy was often cold and blunt with inmates and aggressive in his pursuit of efficiency and order within his unit. Loy was very impatient when dealing with incidents caused by inmates under his command, to the point where he would often resort to physical violence.^[1] In pursuit of this goal, Loy attempted to cut himself off from his desires and emotions, wanting to remain the strict and orderly floor manager and avoid trouble until his eventual release.^[4]

Once it was revealed that no one was actually being released from the complex, Loy finally allowed himself to consider the hope of escape for the first time. During his speech to the other inmates over the intercom, Loy encouraged them not only to do their best to escape but also help other inmates along the way.^[3]

Loy was unable to swim.^[3]

Behind the scenes[]

Appearance[]

"They're so entirely different. I loved playing Snoke. Snoke was a great character to play. I never thought I'd be coming back into the universe to play another character, but when Tony Gilroy approached me and said, 'Look, will you come and play Kino Loy?' I was like, 'Is this going to be confusing to everybody?' There are so many Snoke theories flying about, is this really just going to throw fuel on the fire? I really didn't want to go down that road. But I really was such a big fan of 'Rogue One,' and Tony's description of the character of Kino Loy, it was so endearing in a way, because here was this man who actually really cares about the greater good, who is now incarcerated and loses touch with himself and becomes very cold hearted and just wants to survive and just look after number one."

―Andy Serkis^[5]

Kino Loy made his debut in "Narkina 5," the eighth episode of the first season of Tony Gilroy's live-action Disney+ series Andor^[1] which was released on October 26, 2022.^[6] He was portrayed by Andy Serkis,^[1] who had previously portrayed Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.^[7] Bradley Farmer served as a stunt double for the character in the later episode "One Way Out,"^[3] which was released on November 9 of that year.^[6]

Characterization[]

According to writer Beau Willimon, Loy was written from scratch in the writers' room for Andor Season One, where the character's story was developed on the idea of him first being someone who bought into the system.^[8] The writers wanted the character to be the face of the prison from the prisoners' perspective.^[9] Loy's character arc was then developed to present the idea of someone going from being an "automaton" to the system to becoming a rebel, intent on serving as a building block for Cassian Andor's story. While Loy was not written with the intent of him being portrayed by Serkis, Willimon and his colleagues were intent on developing a character that could be played by a well-known guest actor such that it could headline three episodes as the face of the Narkina-5 prison. The final character, in writing, drew much interest from those like Willimon and producer Sanne Wohlenberg, and the story's developers made ideas in their head of who could be casted.^[8] Willimon said he does not remember if Loy's "I can't swim" line was discussed in the writers' room or if it came later in the outline and script phase. He assumed they got to the line because they approached things from an emotional perspective. The writers thought about what would be the most heartbreaking thing that could happen at the end of Loy's journey, which became Loy being unable to escape after leading the prisoners to the water.^[9]

Andor Kino Loy Poster — Andy Serkis as Kino Loy in his character poster

According to Serkis, he was approached by Gilroy, with whom he was familiar with and respected as a storyteller, about playing Loy,^[10] but Gilroy was unsure if he would do the role. Serkis was then quickly cast as Loy. His previous role as Snoke had no effect on his casting.^[11] Already thrilled about returning to Star Wars, the actor liked how the character proposed to him, seeing his story as complex and fulfilling. He was also mindful that he might rekindle a save of theories that had encompassed his first character in Star Wars, Snoke, feeling that fans might naturally make a connection between the two individuals.^[10] This was Serkis' only problem with returning to Star Wars. He was intoxicated by the idea of playing someone the opposite of Snoke and showing the human perspective of someone coping with the Empire's oppression.^[12] One of the reasons Serkis wanted the role was the opportunity to play a character opposite Diego Luna, Cassian Andor's actor.^[13] After getting through what he called "the Snoke-theory quagmire," Serkis quickly committed to the role.^[12]

Serkis said he really fell in love with his character. After Serkis received the pitch from Gilroy and read the scripts for the three-episode arc, he created his own backstory for Loy, considering how the character became a prisoner and eventually a manager there.^[13] He considered Loy to have been part of a family and he was a factory worker, shop steward,^[12] and a foreman who respected^[13] and stood up for worker's rights. This was seen as being a troublemaker and unpatriotic.^[12] Loy lost touch with his care for others in prison,^[13] becoming a tough shell of his former self, intent only on getting through the day^[12] and getting out^[13] to return to his family.^[14] Serkis wanted the backstory to show that the Empire knocked the integrity out of Loy.^[12] The actor believed that Loy had been brainwashed by the prison system, but he still knew he was imprisoned unfairly.^[14] Serkis saw Andor as someone who could reignite Loy's desire to help others.^[13] Serkis found it exciting to have Loy and Andor gradually become united, and for Loy to speak his truth again. He thought that Loy's toughness at the beginning was intentionally set up so that it could break down gradually as the character finds himself.^[13]

Serkis was not self-conscious about sounding like Snoke. In one of the rehearsals,^[11] the actor tried his father's mild Middle Eastern accent, which he thought was grounded and worked well. However, it was decided that the accent would overcomplicate things^[12] and did not fit. Director Toby Haynes and the crew wanted every actor to use their own accent to provide realism, so the accent was dropped in favor of Serkis' own accent. Serkis also tried to find the correct kind of tonal quality that fit Loy's class level.^[11] According to Wohlenberg, the scenes in the Narkina-5 prison were the last to be shot for Andor Season One.^[8] Serkis talked about the films The Shawshank Redemption and Cool Hand Luke on set, but the actors could not have any personal effects.^[14]

Narkina 5 bts filming — Andy Serkis and Diego Luna in the Narkina 5 set

Serkis and the actors would walk on metal plates with bare feet, which drained their energy. Serkis said the costume design, prison outfits, and the set worked on him psychologically and took away his sense of identity.^[15] He felt that the set design was phenomenal and made him feel like he was in what he called a strange kind of experiment.^[13] For many scenes, Serkis and other barefoot actors played characters who would spend hours waiting in long tubes in the prison. Serkis viewed the experience like walking into a big test tube because of how smelly the tubes would get.^[12] Serkis and the actors would have to stand because there was no room for private space, which made him feel incarcerated.^[15] Serkis enjoyed his time filming, as well as working with Haynes^[10] and Diego Luna.^[13] Serkis liked performing the "never more than twelve" line, which he viewed it as a beautifully written transitional moment for Loy. The actor figured that Loy had a hard time delivering the rousing speech^[12] in the episode "One Way Out"^[3] because he knew he could not swim away from the prison. Serkis thought that Loy had a wonderful arc, and he enjoyed going on a journey with his character.^[12]