Supreme Leader Snoke



Supreme Leader Snoke is a major antagonist in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, appearing as the overarching antagonist of The Force Awakens, as the secondary antagonist of The Last Jedi, and as a posthumous antagonist in The Rise of Skywalker. He was also the unseen overarching antagonist of Season 1 of the animated television series Star Wars Resistance, as well as a posthumous antagonist in Season 2. He is a powerful humanoid alien experienced in the dark side of the Force, and the founder and first Supreme Leader of the First Order.

In The Force Awakens, he appears via hologram, commanding orders to high-ranking First Order military official Armitage Hux, and his apprentice, Kylo Ren. In The Last Jedi, Snoke has a more pivotal role, commanding his flagship, the Supremacy in an attack against the remnants of the Resistance. It is revealed that he had seduced Kylo to the dark side while he was under Luke Skywalker's training. After capturing Rey and commanding Kylo to kill her as to redeem himself worthy to him, Kylo betrayed and murdered Snoke, using the Lightsaber on his throne to cut him in half. Kylo later usurped his position as the new Supreme Leader. However, it turns out in The Rise of Skywalker that Snoke was Darth Sidious' creation as he was made to lead the First Order as his puppet.

He was both portrayed and voiced by Andy Serkis through motion capture, who also played Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Glen in Wild Bill and Gollum in the Hobbit.

Trivia

 * Snoke was initially considered the Bigger Bad of the Star Wars sequel trilogy as he is mainly responsible for corrupting and teaching Kylo Ren, who is the Big Bad, the ways of the dark side of the Force. During the first half of the sequel Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Snoke appeared to be the primary antagonist, but this role is taken over by Ren after he kills Snoke and takes his place as Supreme Leader. However, it was revealed in The Rise of Skywalker that Snoke was basically an artificial being created by Palpatine to control the First Order as a figurehead, thus Palpatine is the one responsible for corrupting Kylo Ren.
 * In The Rise of Skywalker, there are two bodies of Snoke not finished in a tank, as Palpatine estimated that he had no need anymore of him.
 * His appearance was created using motion capture (CGI).
 * His name was officially unveiled on May 28, 2015. It is derived from the word Snoek, a type of fish.
 * His being taken by surprise and sliced in half by a Force user wielding a lightsaber not their own is strikingly similar to what happened to Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace where a Force user (Obi-Wan), cut him in half using a lightsaber not his own (Qui-Gon's). The difference, of course, is that Maul survived.
 * There had been theories that Snoke was Darth Plagueis, Palpatine's former master, but those theories were wrong. Ironically, Snoke's betrayal at the hands of Kylo Ren is exactly like Plagueis' betrayal at the hands of Darth Sidious.
 * Other popular theories were that Snoke was Boba Fett, Jar Jar Binks, Mace Windu, Ezra Bridger, Gallius Rax, a resurrected Darth Vader or even a future Kylo Ren, but those theories were likewise wrong.
 * He is played by Andy Serkis, who also played Gollum in the Lord of The Rings films. Andy Serkis is the second major Lord of The Rings actor to play a Star Wars villain after the late Christopher Lee who played Count Dooku in the prequel trilogy, and Saruman in the Lord of The Rings films.
 * Ironically, his yellow/golden robes resemble those worn by the Jedi Librarian Jocasta Nu, though this resemblance was likely just a coincidence.
 * Snoke wearing a robe and slippers is considered proof of his arrogance, as he considers himself untouchable thanks to his vast dark side powers and his elite Praetorian Guard, only for Kylo Ren to prove him wrong with his betrayal.
 * Andy Serkis has confirmed that Snoke's horribly deformed face was inspired partially by injuries of World War I veterans who came back badly scarred or deformed.
 * In some ways, Snoke can be considered like a foil towards Leia Organa: they are leaders of a military faction (the First Order and the Resistance), operate more from behind the scenes, are strong in the Force, desperately search for Luke Skywalker and both have faith on Kylo Ren. However, whereas Leia was right that her son would not kill her, Snoke naively thought Ren would never betray him and got killed as a result.
 * Snoke was originally planned to be female during the development of The Force Awakens, before the character was finalized as male once his official design was done.
 * Snoke's death in The Last Jedi received the most poor reviews for a Star Wars villain or character, with many claiming that with the massive marketing which Disney published, and, with Snoke's appearance in The Force Awakens to be mysterious, many expected The Last Jedi to explore Snoke's origins until he was killed by Kylo Ren, a decision which was written and made by director Rian Johnson.
 * However, given the revelation in The Rise of Skywalker in which Snoke was revealed to have been an artificial sentinel being and a puppet of Emperor Palpatine the whole time, this criticism has considerably changed, as this seems to imply that Snoke was never an original character but a disguised Palpatine, thus an extension of the latter character.
 * According to Rian Johnson, Snoke's death was a way to make Kylo Ren assume a bigger role and be independent from a master. However, this was partly dropped with the return of Palpatine in the The Rise of Skywalker. Although he did not serve Sidious as he did to Snoke (because he had different plans in mind as he wanted the Throne of the Sith for himself and Rey), Kylo was used and manipulated by Palpatine throughout the movie, which turned him into the pawn of another villain again.
 * While not confirmed if intentional or not, the revelation in The Rise of Skywalker that Snoke was actually a puppet ruler who had been controlled by Emperor Palpatine the whole time may have been inspired by that of Shimrra Jamaane in The New Jedi Order book series (which belongs to the Star Wars Legends continuity). Much like Snoke, Jamaane was introduced as the supposed main antagonist until Onimi was revealed to be secretly controlling him.
 * The revelation that Snoke was a puppet of Palpatine's in The Rise of Skywalker is presumably contradicted by the The Force Awakens novelization and other works in DIsney's Canon, which all states that Snoke witnessed the rise of the Galactic Empire from the shadows and that Palpatine did not know of his existence until the Battle of Endor. As a result, if this were so, several retcons would have to be made in the future to create a specific explanation about Snoke.
 * Despite being one of the main villains of the sequel trilogy, Supreme Leader Snoke never interacted with Finn and Poe Dameron. The only protagonist who interacted with him was Rey, yet Snoke's actions would have ended with the deaths of Finn and Dameron hadn't Kylo Ren stopped him.
 * Snoke is one of villains who interacted with Rey, alongside Kylo Ren and Emperor Palpatine.