A lot of people have well-formed feelings and opinions about Star Wars: The Last Jedi and that includes the people who acted in Rian Johnson's movie. When asked about Snoke's ending in the movie recently, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle director and The Last Jedi actor Andy Serkis revealed he was surprised about the Snoke outcome and does have feelings about wishing the character had stuck around. He said:
It was a bit of a shock, but I could see exactly why they were going that route, and I think it was a huge surprise in the middle of the film. But I really loved the scene where Rey plays with Snoke. That scene was a fantastic. I just wish he'd survived, but who knows?
I would imagine being a part of something as iconic as Star Wars would be appealing to a large chunk of actors, especially when they have meaty scenes to work with, as Andy Serkis did, especially opposite Daisy Ridley on set. A movie like that can raise an actor or actresses' profile very quickly and we saw this happen with John Boyega and Daisy Ridley in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and with Kelly Marie Tran in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Of course, Andy Serkis is a seasoned actor who is very popular for any sort of major motion capture work. Star Wars is not the first major franchise he has been involved in, having come up in the motion capture world through the Peter Jackson camp. After playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series of movies, he also played King Kong and had a main role in the Planet of the Apes franchise reboot.
Still, of course getting to stick around for more than one movie and flesh out a character---especially one that has such an aura of mystery around him as Snoke. With Episode IX expected to wrap up the current trilogy, it would have been interesting to see more of Snoke, but that wasn't the direction Rian Johnson wanted to go in.
If course, Andy Serkis' "who knows?" comment to Total Film is seemingly a nod at the fact Lucasfilm is always looking for new and unusual Star Wars projects, like prequels. Or perhaps Snoke could make a comeback in Episode IX, as the rumor mill has been fond of bandying about. Clearly there are still a lot of questions the fanbase would love to have answered about Supreme Leader Snoke and maybe there will be the opportunity at some point.
Andy Serkis is a man who understands how to play a character who dies in a movie. In fact it happened not once, but three times in his recent movies: War For The Planet Of The Apes, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Black Panther. He's previously talked about how difficult it was to say goodbye to Caesar in War For The Planet Of The Apes, also noting about Snoke at the time:
I mean, look, Caesar really was like ripping my heart out when he died. All the way through his life I played him, you know, from infancy through to sweet goodnight. So, that one was hard to say goodbye, it really was, over the course of three movies. And, Ulysses Klaue, I was having such a good time playing him. I was very sad to say goodbye to him, too. And Snoke... well, who knows about Snoke? Who knows? [laughs].
We'll have to wait and see if we learn more about Supreme Leader Snoke when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20, 2019. In the meantime, you can check out Netflix's Mowgli: Welcome to the Jungle this weekend, or take a look at what all is coming up with our full movies schedule.
