Who is Supreme Leader Snoke?
Less than two weeks, everyone.
In only a dozen days, the Force will finally awaken.
As the return of Star Wars creeps ever closer, we still cannot stop speculating on the plot, and especially, the characters of The Force Awakens.
We’ve analyzed mysterious characters like Kylo Ren and Finn before, but the biggest question mark has to be Supreme Leader Snoke, portrayed by motion-capture veteran Andy Serkis.
Serkis sat down with EW and shed some light on his enigmatic character.
Well, actually, he seems to not know much about Snoke either.
“It’s the first time I’ve been on set not yet knowing what the character’s gonna look like. I mean, talk about secrecy!” Serkis said.
Serkis is perhaps best known for his motion-capture performances, notably Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, and Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes films.
Andy Serkis in mocap gear for The Force Awakens.
The actor continued the interview by discussing how the look of Snoke, also a motion-captured character, was changed throughout production. Apparently, Snoke’s appearance went through many iterations in order to both find the right look for the character, and keep his appearance a secret up until the film’s premiere.
“That’s been fascinating,” Serkis explained. “And in the meantime I’ve been able to see the look and design of the character grow and change as the performances change. So it’s been really exciting in that respect.”
Serkis then elaborated on what (little) he exactly knew about the character.
“Supreme Leader Snoke is quite an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful. Obviously he has a huge agenda. He has suffered a lot of damage. As I said, there is a strange vulnerability to him, which belies his true agenda, I suppose.”
Hmmm…a damaged and powerful character with a huge agenda…
Well, we know for sure that Snoke leads the First Order, the new Galactic Empire, and that he has ties to the Force, as it has been confirmed that Snoke says, “There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side; and the light,” dialogue from the first Episode 7 trailer.
So could Snoke be an established Sith lord?
Many have speculated that Snoke’s identity is Darth Plagueis, the master of Emperor Palpatine.
Palpatine bowing to his master, Plagueis.
Specific dialogue from Revenge of the Sith has led many to believe that Plagueis has achieved immortality, and is pulling strings somewhere in the galaxy.
While a fun theory, Serkis has denied that Snoke is an established character. Instead, he is brand new.
“No, he’s a new character in this universe. It is very much a newly introduced character,” Serkis explained. “He’s aware of what’s gone on, in the respect that he has been around and is aware of prior events. I think it’d be fair to say that he is aware of the past to a great degree.”
With this knowledge in mind, perhaps it’s best just to leave Snoke a mystery.
He’s now one of the only new characters that has been confirmed to not be directly related to any existing Star Wars character, and this is truly exciting.
We love new ideas, new characters, and obviously, getting excited for the new film.
Less than two weeks, everyone. Less than two weeks.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes to theaters on December 18.
