Andy Serkis admitted it’s been "hard" to have three of his characters die in a "very short space of time".
Over the last year, the 53-year-old actor has starred in three Hollywood blockbusters – ‘War For The Planet Of The Apes’ as Caesar, Supreme Leader Snoke in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ and reprised his role as Ulysses Klaue in ‘Black Panther’ – but none of his creations lived to see the end of the movies and he admitted he felt the permanent end of the parts "personally".
Serkis – who is currently working on a performance capture adaptation of ‘The Jungle Book’ – told USA Today newspaper: "I’m so happy, yet it’s been a year of incredible loss, in a way.
"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."
In Ryan Coogler’s Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Serkis’ character was betrayed by Michael B. Jordan’s villain Erik Killmonger and the actor felt "robbed" he couldn’t play his character for longer.
He said: "I can safely say that was my first body bag experience. I really didn’t think he’d go ahead with [that scene]. It was a bit of an upset.
"[Klaue] was so much fun to play, that sort of unhinged [character]. I felt a bit robbed that I couldn’t go on longer."
In ‘Star Wars’, Snoke was killed by his apprentice Kylo Ren – played by Adam Driver – and despite being split in half by a light sabre, Serkis won’t rule out being asked back for another installment of the franchise.
Asked about the possibility, he told BANG Showbiz: "Not for me to say. But who knows anything is possible in a ‘Star Wars’ movie."
His third character to meet his demise last year was his long-running role as Caesar in the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise, but he didn’t feel the loss so hard as there was a "gradual sense of closure" for the character.
He said: "I’ve lived with this character from birth to death. There was at least a gradual sense of closure and completion of the journey. Caesar’s done his job."