Millions of Star Wars fans are waiting for the next episode after the successful run of Star Wars: Force awakens at the global box-office. After the horrible prequels, we really wanted to see an extremely well- directed Star Wars movie onscreen. The Force Awakens had the feel and the tone we wanted, it embraced the magic of original Star Wars movies which made us fell in love with the universe in the first place.
The hype around the movie is enormous, spoilers are all around and almost every Star Wars fan had become a detective keeping eyes on anything that comes into the public domain.
Well, the sci-fi extravaganza has now been released and if critics are to be believed its one of the best Star Wars movie ever. Although it has divided the fans into two extremes – some loved it and others hated it like anything. Many questions were answered but so many mysteries remained unresolved.
There are so many questions surrounding Star Wars trilogy that fans are dying to find answers for, but one of the most intriguing mysteries is the identity of the ‘Supreme leader’ Snoke. Clearly, Lucasfilm is keeping the big reveal under wraps but has thrown series of hints to help fans figure out who he really is.
Andy Serkis is the voice of Snoke. It is surprising to know that at the time he was introduced Lucasfilm did not have a detailed backstory of the Supreme Leader. He also said that he drew inspiration from Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner to play the character of Snoke.
Serkis explained that the character’s design was evolving which made it very challenging for him to portray the character. Here’s what he said about Snoke’s design:
“He’s got this cleft in his head and I think it’s very painful for him to speak and yet there’s an imperiousness about him. He’s severely damaged but there’s a vulnerability that’s he’s trying to cover so that was sort of what I was trying to do.”
This painful injury defined Snoke in ‘The Force Awakens’ and will continue to play an important role in ‘The Last Jedi’. Serkis said that the character has now got the backstory just when it is about to have a much bigger and significant role. The writer-director Rian Johnson compared Snoke with Emperor in the original trilogy, someone with a shadowy background but it was never fully explored.
The author Chuck Wendig wrapped up his Aftermath trilogy set after the events of ‘Return of the Jedi’ which revealed that Emperor was aware of the dark side is keeping a tab on the galaxy from unknown places. He wrote:
“The Emperor was convinced that something waited for him out there — some origin of the Force, some dark presence formed of malevolent substance. He said he could feel the waves of it radiating out now that the way was clear. The Emperor called it a signal — conveniently one that only he could hear. Even his greatest enforcer, Vader, seemed oblivious to it, and Vader also claimed mastery over the dark Force, did he not? Rax believed Palpatine had gone mad.”
EW noted that Snoke’s injuries were inspired by people who endured pain in the trenches of First World War. It added:
“In that conflict, modern war machines ripped and gnarled human bodies like never before, but lifesaving contemporary medicine ensured the survival of men who otherwise would have died on the battlefield. They lived on carrying damage previously seen only on corpses.”
Snoke is now flabbergasted with the destruction of Starkiller’s base and is furious at Kylo Ren’s weakness, he is searching for a new disciple which he thinks could be Rey. His identity, motives are still unknown, but it is clear that Snoke is a non-human entity with enormous dark side power.
He apparently wears a ring made up of black Kyber crystal which allows him to focus his power, also confirmed by the action figures unveiled on Force Friday 2017.
The Supreme Leader Snoke is using Kylo Ren as bait to destroy the Skywalker line and prevent Jedi prophecy. He convinced Kylo Ren that he cheated death, outperformed Sith abilities and destroyed Jedi through a pawn. He intends to either draw out Luke through Kylo and kill him or get Luke killed using Kylo, either way, he wins.
Mark Hamill was recently asked as to who does he consider more terrifying – Emperor or Snoke. Here’s what he said:
“Well, I would say the Emperor, because, do we know if Luke even knows who Snoke is? He’s off on the island and there’s so many unanswered questions, you know. Even I said, look, we communicated telepathically with Leia, I said, ‘You have that power too,’ has she been talking to me? Do I know what’s going on? Do I know that I lost my best friend and his son killed him? There’s all those unanswered questions.”
But in the recent interview, Serkis disagreed and maintains that Snoke is the evilest person in the galaxy. He said:
“The thing about Snoke is that he is extremely strong with the Force, the dark side of the Force. He’s terribly powerful, of course. But he is also a very vulnerable and wounded character. He has suffered and he has suffered injury. The way that his malevolence comes out is in reaction to that. His hatred of the Resistance is fueled by what’s happened to him personally.”
The director J.J. Abrams has managed to reinvent Star Wars franchise and create an enormous amount of buzz for the next installment of the Skywalker saga. He is coming back for Star Wars 9 with a lot of big ideas with screenwriter Chris Terrio who is working on a screenplay.
He is promising fans that the conclusive installment will be unlike anything they have seen before. He intends to avoid repetitions and bring in many new elements onto the big screen. One of the biggest complaints of ‘The Force Awakens’ was that it seemed a rehash of ‘New Hope’ with latest computer graphics. Here’s what he said:
“Well, it’s certainly something that I’m aware of now working on Episode IX – coming back into this world after having done Episode VII. I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids, loving what these movies were. And at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven’t gone, and that’s sort of our responsibility.”
There is a whole new generation of movie-goers who don’t hate the prequels as much as people above 30 age group. The new Star Wars movies are for all generations so it makes perfect sense to give a reference to so-called “prequels”. Here’s what J.J. Abrams said to BBC in an interview:
“Well, it’s certainly something that I’m aware of now working on Episode IX, coming back into this world after having done Episode VII. I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids, loving what these movies were. And at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven’t gone, and that’s sort of our responsibility. It’s a strange thing, Michael’s worked on things like Planet of the Apes and Star Trek and Star Wars, and these are the things of dreams. Yet we can’t just revel in that; we have to go elsewhere.”
He has assured the fans that Star Wars 9 will be truly different and satisfying. He feels if they can manage to tie in all the three trilogies, it would be a big accomplishment. The movie is set to be released on May 24, 2019.
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