Denise Gough, Kyle Soller on ‘Andor' Season 2: Heroes of their stories

The Hindu

24-04-2025

Now that Season 2 of Tony Gilroy's phenomenally successful 'Star Wars for adults', Andor, is streaming, we have a chance to spend time with the Rebel Alliance and the Imperial Army. While there are indications that Diego Luna's Cassian Andor and his former lover, Bix, played by Adria Arjona, might get back together, there is also the pairing of Denise Gough's Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) hardhat, Dedra, and the disgraced Pre-Mor Deputy Inspector, Syril, played by Kyle Soller.
Both are drawn into Cassian's orbit. Dedra is following up on clues to capture the Rebel Alliance recruiter, codenamed Axis and played with sinister silkiness by Stellan Skarsgård, while Syril wants to capture Cassian who was responsible for Syril's downfall, when he went against orders to investigate the deaths on Morlana One.
Season 1 ended with Syril saving Dedra from the riot on Ferrix. When Season 2 opens, one year after the events of the finale of Season 1, Dedra and Syril are living together and even hosting Syril's scary mum, Eedy (an excellent Kathryn Hunter), who Dedra quickly puts in her place, revealing who is the boss.
Since the age of Darth Vader, Star Wars stories have been hard-pressed to find a towering antagonist. Gilroy has done the smart thing by going small. All the antagonists in Andor are doing right in their eyes, they are just doing their job and are driven by the very human ambition to do well and succeed.
'We learn pretty early in the season about Dedra's background,' Denise says over a video call from Los Angeles, referring to Dedra's revelation during the dinner with Eedy that she lost her parents at the age of three and was raised in an Imperial Kinder-Block. 'Dedra is Empire through and through. Her drive comes from extinguishing any threat to the Empire.'
Although Dedra is certainly ambitious to get ahead, Denise says that is not her primary goal. 'Her really deep-rooted belief is that she has to protect the Empire from any outside threat. That's where she's coming from.'
Syril, Kyle chimes in, is driven by an incredible amount of ambition. 'It is rooted in a fear of not being good enough, not being seen, not feeling like he has a place. He has attached himself to the structure of the Empire, which has a clear order and procedure, and way of rewarding the people that work there. Ultimately, he wants to make a difference, and it just so happens (laughs) that he has chosen the Empire in order to do that.'
In their mind, they are heroes, Denise says. 'Dedra definitely believes herself to be absolutely doing the right thing.' That is the beauty of what Gilroy created, says Kyle. 'You're assuming to be seeing two sides of the coin in the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, while what you're really getting is a behind-the-scenes look at the cogs, wheels, nuts and bolts of the machine, and understanding that these people think they're doing the right thing within their own avenues of the Empire.'
Syril is in the corporate sector, in a more bureaucratic role, says the 41-year-old Kyle. 'He is actually upholding a certain amount of justice, and it's very different from what Dedra is doing at the ISB, even though that's something that Syril wants to achieve. Within that little bubble of Syril's world some could say he is doing the right thing, and he believes that he does.'
Showing these gray, conflicted, complex Star Wars villains in a new light, is one of the strengths of what Gilroy has created, according to Kyle.
All the characters, both the heroes and villains in Andor, have shades of gray, the 45-year-old Denise says. 'None of these characters are just villains. They're human and that's what makes them so interesting to play. There's nothing more dangerous than somebody who believes entirely in the fact that what they're doing is right.'
They do not see outside the system they are in, Denise observes. 'Through the season we see that maybe Syril is more capable of seeing outside the system compared to Dedra, who is Empire to the marrow of her bones, which makes her very dangerous.'
Andor Season 2 streams on JioHotstar