Supreme Leader Snoke
Supreme Leader Snoke is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He was created by J. J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Michael Arndt for the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in which he is introduced as the Supreme Leader of the First Order, a military junta formed from the fallen Galactic Empire. In the films, Snoke is a computer-generated character voiced and performed by Andy Serkis using motion capture.
"Snoke" redirects here. For other uses, see Snoke (disambiguation).Supreme Leader Snoke
The Force Awakens (2015)
Andy Serkis
Male
Supreme Leader of the First Order
Puppet ruler of the First Order
- First Order
- Sith Eternal
Exegol
34 ABY, Supremacy, Crait system
The Star Wars universe establishes Snoke as a Force-sensitive artificial being created by Emperor Palpatine to lead the First Order against the New Republic. As Palpatine's puppet ruler, Snoke manipulates Luke Skywalker's nephew, Ben Solo, into becoming Kylo Ren.[3][4]
The character appears as a major antagonist in The Force Awakens (2015) and the secondary antagonist in The Last Jedi (2017), and is referenced in The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Aside from the films, Snoke appears in related Star Wars media.
Character[edit]
Development[edit]
Snoke's appearance changed throughout principal photography and post-production of The Force Awakens. Andy 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.[5]
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 [creature creative supervisor Neal Scanlan] didn't want him to be old and decrepit, like [Emperor Palpatine]."[6] Manzella later revealed that, influenced by a reference by Abrams to Hammer House of Horror, he partially based a maquette of Snoke on Peter Cushing, who portrayed Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars film.[7]
Reception[edit]
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."[54] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called Serkis "the undisputed champion of the performance-capture roles".[31] Though praising the "unobtrusive sophistication" of the visual effects used to portray the character, Variety's Justin Chang said that Serkis is "fine but not galvanizing" in the role.[33] Lindsay Bahr of the Associated Press deemed Snoke one of the "less memorable" characters in The Force Awakens.[55] In 2016, Serkis was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Virtual Performance for the role.[56]
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.[57][58][59][60] Rian Johnson's decision to kill the character without developing him further was criticized by many. 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.[61]