Riz Ahmed is currently right in the thick of the awards season conversation, with the actor winning widespread acclaim for his phenomenal performance in Darius Marder’s drama Sound of Metal, where he plays the drummer in a heavy metal band who starts to lose his hearing. It’s just the latest in a long line of accomplished turns from the 38 year-old, but for a lot of audiences, he’s still best known for his work in big budget blockbusters Venom and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
In the former, his villainous Carlton Drake was about as one-dimensional and underwritten as comic book bad guys can get, and he even completed the requisite transformation into a CGI monstrosity in the third act, but at least you can tell Ahmed was having fun with the role. His part in Rogue One was much more substantial, though, with his pilot being a key member of the crack team tasked to steal the plans for the Death Star.
Venom sequel Let There Be Carnage is arriving later this year and Disney Plus Star Wars exclusive Andor has been shooting in his native England since last November, so naturally there’s been speculation that he could return to one or both franchises. However, in a recent interview, the Four Lions star said that he isn’t involved in either.
“I think I’m done in Venom. It’s pretty conclusive. Dude got blown up in a spaceship.
And when asked about Andor, he said:
I just haven’t heard of that, to be honest.”
Having been pretty decisively killed off in Venom, there was little chance he’d be brought back for the follow-up, but with Andor acting as a prequel spinoff to a prequel spinoff, there could conceivably be a place for Ahmed’s Bodhi Rock in the story. Though at the moment, it sounds as if he isn’t a part of the project.