Andor may be over, but Kyle Soller‘s performance as Syril Karn remains one of the show’s strangest and most memorable. Across the series’ two seasons, Syril evolves from an obsessive bureaucrat into a pawn in the Empire’s plans for Ghorman, with his increasingly complicated relationship with Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) ultimately ending in tragedy. By the time Syril realizes just how thoroughly he has been manipulated, his devotion to order has already helped put him on a collision course with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the Ghorman resistance. Soller’s performance makes that downfall unexpectedly emotional, especially as Syril’s carefully controlled exterior begins to fall apart.
Given just how well Soller embodies Syril’s desperation, severity, and growing disillusionment, it may be surprising for Star Wars fans to learn that the actor has already played an even more openly vulnerable character in another acclaimed sci-fi series. Back in 2023, Soller starred in the Netflix sci-fi hit Bodies, showing off his softer side and giving the series its most poignant love story as London Detective Inspector Alfred Hillinghead.
A critically acclaimed release in its own right, Bodies is a thrilling adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name that broke into Netflix’s Top 10 following its release. For viewers who were impressed by Soller’s tragic turn in Andor, the eight-part sci-fi mystery offers an even clearer showcase for his emotional range.
What Is Netflix’s ‘Bodies’ About?
Bodies is also a healthy mix of time travel and good old-fashioned (literally) murder. The series’ plot revolves around detectives in four time periods — 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053 — all of whom suddenly stumble upon the same body (Tom Mothersdale) appearing in all four years at once in the same exact spot. As the investigators each follow their own leads to understand this mystery victim’s identity, cause of death, and the motivation behind the killing, both the audience and detectives alike are pulled into a conspiracy spanning centuries, one that seeks to reshape the world into a new, dystopian order and ensure that everyone knows what it means to feel loved.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
What follows is an exhilarating race both against and throughout time in order to ensure the man somehow living in all four time periods, Elias Mannix (Gabriel Howell and Stephen Graham), cannot be allowed to continue a time loop that grants him power over history itself.
Soller’s DI Hillinghead is the lead investigator in the year 1890 and, for all intents and purposes, leads the most compelling and vital subplot in the series’ eight episodes. At once intrigued by a reporter at the scene of the crime, Henry Ashe (George Parker), and wholeheartedly devoted to his wife and daughter, Hillinghead is a man pulled in two directions as questions surrounding the titular body pull him deeper into the mystery of Graham’s Sir Julian Harker.
Facing police corruption, blackmail, and the injustice of a late Victorian society as he digs deeper for the truth, Hillinghead is subsequently forced to choose between living honestly or living safely, and Soller’s heartbreaking performance imbues Hillinghead’s dilemma with a level of raw emotion that easily makes his storyline the most impactful of the series.
Kyle Soller Masterfully Balances Severity With Passion in ‘Bodies’
Watching Soller at the beginning of Bodies is sure to be a treat for Andor fans because the actor imbues his London detective with the same severity that defines Syril Karn. A stern, stoic presence onscreen whose serious regard for propriety contrasts with Henry Ashe’s more teasing, liberated personality, Soller once again demonstrates his skill at bringing hawkish authority figures to life during Bodies‘ earliest episodes. But the actor truly shines once the series begins exploring Hillinghead’s queer identity. At first so startled by his feelings for Ashe that he has the man arrested on the same kind of indecency charge that doomed Oscar Wilde, the pair’s joint investigation soon makes it impossible for Hillinghead to hide his true feelings. The role allows Soller to surrender the rigid restraint familiar from Syril Karn in favor of a much more openly passionate performance.
Hillinghead’s subsequent scenes with Ashe are all largely stolen by just how successfully Soller’s pleading line delivery tugs on your heartstrings, with the character’s mask quickly melting away to reveal the portrait of a man who has lived his entire life without the love he truly craves. Whether recovering from a séance gone wrong in Ashe’s apartment or urging Ashe to run once Harker issues Hillinghead a chilling ultimatum, Soller masterfully conveys the urgent need of Hillinghead’s desire and the growing happiness of a man finally at home in Ashe’s apartment. Furthermore, by convincingly capturing both Hillinghead’s early austerity and the pining familiarity he develops once he opens up to Ashe, Soller effectively captures the duality of a man who goes from trapped to entranced, transforming one of Bodies‘ best characters and highlighting the versatile talent of the Star Wars performer.
Kyle Soller’s Love Story in ‘Bodies’ Grounds the Sci-Fi Narrative in Deeply Personal Stakes
George Parker in BodiesImage via Netflix
Aside from how well Soller portrays the most dynamic character in Bodies‘ romantic subplot, the relationship itself has larger implications for the show’s story at large. In a series that juggles the usual futuristic exposition and sci-fi gymnastics in 2053, Bodies‘ 1890 plotline occupies a much more intimate atmosphere, one with all the charged tension and personal turmoil of a classic period romance. Consequently, Hillinghead’s affair grounds the mind-bending plot of Bodies‘ later episodes with a depth of human feeling that allows the series to remain tonally balanced, reminding viewers of the series’ personal stakes even as each new revelation opens the door to a plethora of complex, plot-related paradoxes.
Once again, Soller is a standout of these later story moments, expertly communicating Hillinghead’s inner conflict between his old lies and new lease on life, both when his family is threatened and during the detective’s final confrontation with Elias Mannix. In fact, by the end of Bodies, it’s hard to root for anyone more than Hillinghead because of the twisted scheme Elias ultimately unleashes on the man’s family and loved ones.
Nevertheless, a character’s tragedy is an actor’s opportunity, and Soller more than seizes his chance to deliver a stirring performance that is as gut-wrenching as it is deeply moving. After seeing Syril Karn’s complete downfall in Andor, Soller’s work in Bodies feels even more revealing. Both characters begin as tightly wound authority figures, but Hillinghead allows the actor to expose a tenderness and vulnerability that Syril spends much of his life desperately suppressing. For Andor fans who came away impressed by Soller’s performance, Netflix’s sci-fi mystery proves just how much more range the actor has to offer.
All eight episodes of Bodies are available to stream on Netflix.
