Supreme Leader Snoke


Supreme Leader Snoke is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He is a CGI character voiced and performed by Andy Serkis. Snoke was created by J. J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Michael Arndt for the 2015 film ', in which he is introduced as the Supreme Leader of the First Order, a rogue military junta formed from the fallen Galactic Empire's remains. Powerful with the Force, he seduces Ben Solo to serve the First Order as the commander Kylo Ren. The 2019 film ' reveals that Snoke was created and used by Palpatine as a puppet to reclaim control of the galaxy.

Character

Development

Snoke's appearance changed throughout principal photography and post-production of The Force Awakens. Serkis said, "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!" According to the actor, the character's appearance, voice, and movements evolved as he and the film's writer/director J. J. Abrams challenged the visual effects team.
According to The Force Awakens senior sculptor Ivan Manzella, "Snoke almost became a female at one point. J. J. picked out a maquette he liked and then we took it to a full-size version, sculpted in plasteline. J. J. and didn't want him to be old and decrepit, like ."

Portrayal

While Serkis secretly joined the project in February 2014, his casting in The Force Awakens was first announced on April 29, 2014. When asked about his role in July 2014, he joked, "I'm not Yoda." In May 2015, a StarWars.com interview with photographer Annie Leibovitz about her The Force Awakens shoot for Vanity Fair revealed that Serkis would be playing a CGI character named Supreme Leader Snoke, and featured an image of the actor in motion capture gear. Serkis had previously played several CGI characters using motion capture technology, including Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film series, the titular ape in 2005's King Kong, and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot series.
In November 2015, Serkis said of the process of creating Snoke:
According to Serkis' costar Lupita Nyong'o, who played the CGI character Maz Kanata in The Force Awakens, the actor coached her on performance-capture work, telling Nyong'o that "a motion-capture character you develop the same way as any other. You have to understand who the character is and what makes them who they are." Serkis said of filming:
Costume designer Michael Kaplan had the idea to give Snoke gold robes to contrast from his red and black throne room in The Last Jedi. Director Rian Johnson said the red motif was intended to evoke curtains in a nod to The Wizard of Oz, in which the titular character hides behind a curtain. The throne room was designed to look theatrical as opposed to Palpatine's, which was more utilitarian. The conceptual designers of the set were inspired by unused concept art for Return of the Jedi depicting the Emperor's lava-based lair under the surface of Coruscant. According to The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary, the gold ring Snoke wears is set with obsidian from Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar. The glyphs it is set with are a reference to four philosophers Palpatine had statues of in his office, first seen in . Additionally, Palpatine's theme can be heard during the scene in which Snoke tortures Rey.

Description

Snoke, whom Abrams called "a powerful figure on the dark side of the Force", was introduced as the leader of the First Order and master to the sequel trilogy's primary villain, Kylo Ren. Serkis described Snoke as "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." Serkis called Snoke "a new character in this universe", adding "I think it'd be fair to say that he is aware of the past to a great degree."
Explaining why CGI was the only way to create Snoke's unique appearance, Serkis said before the film's premiere, "The scale of him, for instance, is one reason. He is large. He appears tall. And also just the facial design—you couldn't have gotten there with prosthetics... he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone and facial structure." Chief of creature and droid effects Neal Scanlan said, "This character is much better executed as a CGI character. That's just a practical reality when he's 7-foot-something tall; he's very, very thin." Snoke's "scarred, cavernous face" was not revealed before the release of the film, in which he appears as a "massive, ominous hologram". The character's deep voice was first heard in the teaser trailer released on November 28, 2014.
Robbie Collin of The Telegraph described the disfigured and skeletal Snoke as a "sepulchral horror", Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called him "hissing and grotesque", and Andrew O'Hehir of Salon dubbed the character "a spectral demonic figure". Varietys Justin Chang wrote that Snoke resembled "a plus-sized, more articulate Gollum", and Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly described him as "essentially Emperor Palpatine crossed with one of the aliens from Close Encounters." Stephanie Zacharek of Time called the character "a giant, scary, noseless dude who sits placidly in an oversized chair like a dark-lord version of the Lincoln Monument."
There were multiple fan theories regarding the origins and identity of Snoke, including that he was Darth Plagueis, a Sith Lord anecdotally mentioned in ' and the mentor of Palpatine, allegedly possessing the power to prevent death; Palpatine himself, "the Operator" Gallius Rax, a mysterious First Order manipulator from Chuck Wendig's ' novel trilogy; or Ezra Bridger, a main character from the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group dismissed the Darth Plagueis theory in May 2016, and Rax's death in the 2017 novel disproved that theory as well.
In the context of the story, Snoke was created by Palpatine. According to The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, Snoke's physical appearance was purposefully designed by Palpatine to ensure his species remained unidentifiable. Furthermore, Snoke's reluctance to meet in person with his First Order underlings helped conceal the fact that he was an artificial being. General Pryde, a supporting villain in The Rise of Skywalker,
was one of the few characters who knew Snoke was subservient to a higher power.

Appearances

Film

''The Force Awakens'' (2015)

In his first appearance in the film, Snoke is introduced as Supreme Leader of the First Order, and master to Kylo Ren. Seduced to the dark side by Snoke, the masked Kylo is really Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa. Snoke senses an "awakening" in the Force, and warns Ren that the limits of his power will be tested when he faces his father in pursuit of the wayward droid BB-8. He orders General Hux to destroy the New Republic with the Starkiller superweapon. Leia reveals to her estranged husband Han that it was Snoke's influence which corrupted their son. Later, he orders Ren to lead Rey to him. After Ren is defeated in a lightsaber duel with Rey, Snoke orders Hux to collect Ren and ready him to complete his training.

''The Last Jedi'' (2017)

Following the events of The Force Awakens, Snoke reprimands Hux for his failings as a military leader, and Kylo Ren for his failure to find and kill Luke Skywalker. Ren brings Rey to Snoke, who tortures her for information on Luke's location. He reveals to Ren and Rey that he created the psychic bond between them as part of a plan to destroy Luke himself. Snoke then orders Ren to kill Rey after failing to turn her to the dark side, and gloats over his total control over his apprentice. At that moment, however, Ren uses the Force to activate Luke's lightsaber, which Rey had been using, and cuts Snoke in half with it, killing him. Ren then declares himself the new Supreme Leader of the First Order, pinning Snoke's death on Rey.

''The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019)

In The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren finds several clones resembling Snoke at Palpatine's lair on the Sith world Exegol. Snoke's voice is briefly used by Palpatine when talking to Ren. It is revealed that Palpatine had created Snoke as a puppet to lure Ren towards the dark side, and to reclaim the galaxy through the First Order.

Related works

Snoke appears in the of The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster. In the novel, Leia tells Han in more detail how Snoke, aware that their son would be "strong with the Force" and possess "equal potential for good or evil", had long watched Ben and manipulated events to draw him to the dark side.
An unplayable Lego minifigure version of Snoke appears in cutscenes in the 2016 video game '. In the spring of 2018, Snoke was added to the mobile MOBA ' as a playable Dark Side squad leader. Canon works reveal that Snoke acquired Palpatine's Senate office.
Prior to the release of The Rise of Skywalker, the 2019 comic book Star Wars: Age of Resistance – Supreme Leader Snoke implied a direct connection between Snoke and Palpatine. In the book, Snoke speaks of Luke Skywalker to Kylo Ren, stating, "If I had your uncle by my side instead of you, the galaxy would have been mine a long time ago".

Reception

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Supreme Leader Snoke is a larger-than-life, vaguely Harry Potter-ish hologram voiced with deep gravity by Andy Serkis; the full weight of this character's malignancy and dramatic power will presumably be better assessed in subsequent episodes." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called Serkis "the undisputed champion of the performance-capture roles". Though praising the "unobtrusive sophistication" of the visual effects used to portray the character, Varietys Justin Chang said that Serkis is "fine but not galvanizing" in the role. Lindsay Bahr of the Associated Press deemed Snoke one of the "less memorable" characters in The Force Awakens. In 2016, Serkis was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Virtual Performance for the role.
Some viewers felt that Snoke's character arc was underdeveloped. Various fan theories about his origins were held so strongly among some viewers that it was difficult for them to accept his demise in The Last Jedi. Serkis addressed the criticisms by saying producers wanted the character "to have a great deal of mystery", but that he "has been asked to not shed anything should they want to bring him back in any way, whether prequel or whatever". Forbes criticized The Force Awakens for not developing Snoke as a character, or exploring his backstory and inexplicable rise to power after the events of the original trilogy, calling the character "a bandage poorly placed over a gaping plot-hole". Serkis acknowledged that some fans found the lack of backstory "incredibly frustrating", but suggested this as an opportunity to layer Snoke in a future story. Despite the criticisms towards the writing, Forbes praised Serkis' performance in both films, and was much more positive towards his appearance in The Last Jedi, highlighting his death and his relationship with his apprentice, Kylo Ren.