Why 'Black Panther,' 'Star Wars' star Andy Serkis had such a rough year onscreen (spoilers!)

You don't have bigger years than Andy Serkis has enjoyed, now starring as villain Ulysses Klaue in Marvel's Black Panther.

Serkis held down major roles in two other mega-franchise installments — as Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and as the ape hero Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes.

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Spoiler alert: STOP READING right now if you haven't seen all of these films! 

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But there's a downside to his movie success. Every one of Serkis' celebrated characters died onscreen. 

"I'm so happy, yet it’s been a year of incredible loss, in a way," says Serkis, 53. "You live with these characters, you create them, you become very attached to them. To have three depart from your life in a very short space of time is hard. I felt these personally."

Here's how his exits went down:

Klaue was fierce in 'Black Panther' — for half the movie

Serkis hoped he'd have a long Marvel run with Klaue, the South African arms dealer who initially appeared in 2015's  Avengers: Age of Ultron. Klaue is a recurring Black Panther adversary in the comic books.

But midway through Black Panther, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) betrays Klaue with a gunshot before showing off the dead body to gain entry to Black Panther's African country of Wakanda.

"I can safely say that was my first body bag experience," says Serkis, who hoped director Ryan Coogler wouldn't feature the body shot, leaving the door open for Klaue's return in future films.

"I really didn’t think he’d go ahead with (that scene). It was a bit of an upset,"  Serkis says. "(Klaue) was so much fun to play, that sort of unhinged (character). I felt a bit robbed that I couldn’t go on longer."

He's still hoping that Klaue will somehow return through Marvel movie miracle. "Maybe that’s just wishful thinking. But who knows?"

More:Terry Crews: From racist black characters to ‘Black Panther,’ we’ve come so far

Also:5 ways that 'Black Panther' celebrates and elevates black women

Kylo Ren had a Snoke surprise in 'The Last Jedi'

Serkis' fearsome Lord Snoke was the horrifying, disfigured head of the evil First Order in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. But Snoke came to a surprise end in The Last Jedi after ordering his sinister subordinate Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to kill Rey (Daisy Ridley). Instead, Ren cleaved Snoke in two with his lightsaber.

Serkis was "shocked" when he read the script. "It was so unexpected. Of course, that’s what the audience feels."

Shooting the death scene was difficult.

"Imagining the moment where you pass, especially in that painful way, severed by a lightsaber. Part of you suffers that," he says. "But it was was a very taut, high-stakes death."

The Mothership podcast:We break out the 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' spoilers

More:What's going on with Kylo Ren and Rey in 'The Last Jedi'?

'Apes': Et tu, Caesar?

Using motion-capture technology, Serkis played the intelligent ape Caesar from a baby in 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes to a revolutionary in 2014's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to the leader's final moments in War for the Planet of the Apes. After guiding his followers to a promised land, Caesar slumps and dies peacefully from his battle wounds.

"I’ve lived with this character from birth to death," Serkis says. "There was at least a gradual sense of closure and completion of the journey. Caesar's done his job."

Related:Will 'Apes' finally bring respect to Andy Serkis and motion capture?

More:The unlikely evolution of Andy Serkis' Caesar in 'Planet of the Apes'