Warning: SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Last Jedi are ahead!
In the aftermath of The Force Awakens, one of the biggest mysteries many Star Wars fans were hoping would be answered was what the deal with Supreme Leader Snoke was. The only things we learned about the tall, decrepit First Order tyrant was that he was strong in the Force and that he seduced Kylo Ren to the dark side, but his brief appearance spawned numerous questions, like where he came from and how he became so knowledgeable about the Force. Well, not only did The Last Jedi not shed any light on Snoke's past, but the movie killed him off for good measure. However, there's still one more movie left in this current Star Wars trilogy, and even though Snoke is deceased, Andy Serkis has seemingly teased that Episode IX could include some information on the character's backstory. When asked if he'd talked with directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson about Snoke's past, Serkis responded:
We did, yeah. We've talked about it. We wanted to keep it a mystery and, you know by the way, it is Star Wars so who knows what might happen. Without giving anything away.
The fact that Andy Serkis threw in a "without giving anything away" is immediately suspect. Granted, given how large the Star Wars media empire has become, it's entirely possible that Snoke's backstory could be saved for a a book, comic book, TV series or video game in the coming years. However, with all the casual Star Wars fans who only follow along with the movies, saving a reveal as big as this to one of the lesser-known projects seems like it would be a waste, but thanks to Serkis, we now have a a glimmer of hope that Episode IX could answer some of our Snoke questions. When Screen Crush followed up and asked Serkis if this meant that there was a chance of revisiting Snoke's past in the future, he said:
Well, it's Star Wars. What can I say? [Laughs]
Our last moments with Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi were spent aboard his Star Destroyer, the Supremacy, where he was bragging about the total control he had over Kylo Ren and ordered his apprentice to kill Rey. Instead, Kylo decided to activate Rey's lightsaber from afar and slice his master in half. After The Last Jedi's release, Rian Johnson explained that the main reason he didn't explore Snoke's backstory is because he didn't want these revelations to kill the momentum of the main story. Johnson also noted that much like how the original Star Wars trilogy revealed little about Emperor Palpatine, he didn't think it was crucial to include context for Snoke's "true" identity alongside everything else being packed into the movie. Nevertheless, J.J. Abrams and writer Chris Terrio are working on Episode IX together, and judging by Andy Serkis' comment, perhaps they plan to provide some details on the late Supreme Commander.
Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20, 2019, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how it is coming along.
