About

Kalkite, also known as Deep Substrate Foliated Kalkite, is a catchphrase delivered by the character Orson Krennic (played by actor Ben Mendelsohn) in the season two premiere of the Star Wars prequel TV series Andor. In the scene, a top-secret Imperial meeting is taking place as a specialist explains to Krennic's team how the Empire needs to mine "deep substrate foliated kalkite" from the planet Ghorman to create the Death Star. Mendelsohn's forceful line delivery of the phrase "Kalkite" and the line "Synthetic kalkite! Kalkite alternatives! Kalkite substitutes!" became the subject of various memes and YTPs in May 2025.

Origin

The season 2 premiere of the Disney+ show Andor debuted on April 22nd, 2025, with a scene showing a secret Imperial meeting where Orson Krennic explains that Ghorman is home to a mineral called kalkite, which the Empire needs to coat the reactor lenses of the Death Star (then called the Energy Initiative) in three years. Krennic also announces that should they fail to find any kalkite alternatives, they will mine the kalkite from Ghorman even at the risk of the planet destabilizing.

The YouTube^[1] channel Star Wars Clips posted a video of the scene on April 23rd, 2025, gathering over 79,000 views in a month. The line "Deep substrate foliated kalkite" can be seen at the 0:42 timestamp.

Spread

On May 13th, 2025, YouTuber^[2] @Galaxy_Tea posted a video titled "Krennic’s Kalkite Krashout," editing the aforementioned scene and gathering over 27,000 likes in a month.

On May 22nd, YouTuber^[3] yotsuben posted a YTP featuring the line Orson Krennic's line read, gathering over 31,000 views in two weeks.

Also on May 22nd, YouTube^[4] The Harvinator posted a video titled, "DEEP SUBSTRATE FOLIATED KALKITE," editing several Vine Thuds in the scene, and gathering over 44,000 views in two weeks.

On June 4th, 2025, X^[5] user @fartagaz posted a clip of Ben Mendelsohn emphasising the word "kalkite" at an Andor panel. The caption on the video read, "Ben has clearly seen the kalkite memes," gathering over 5,000 likes in a day.

Ben has clearly seen the kalkite memes pic.twitter.com/nX1d0GijsF

— major fartagaz | Andor Forever (@fartagaz) June 4, 2025

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References