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Supreme Leader Snoke is one of the most consequential figures in the Star Wars saga, yet the character is largely an enigma. Introduced in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we learn that Snoke is the leader behind the First Order, a tyrannical government that seeks to restore Emperor Palpatine’s Galactic Empire. Snoke’s mastery of the Sith was so powerful that he managed to corrupt Han and Lea’s son Ben, turning him into the Sith Lord Kylo Ren.

Under Snoke’s leadership, Kylo Ren wiped out Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Order, forcing the former war hero into hiding. This is a long way of saying that while Snoke barely had any screentime, his actions made him one of the most important characters in the franchise.

As a result, it’s only natural that fans were curious about his background. After The Force Awakens, fans spent the next few years speculating on Snoke’s origins. One popular theory was that he was secretly Darth Plagueis, Palpatine’s former master.

Snoke was killed by Kylo Ren in the 2017 film The Last Jedi, and the 2019 film The Rise of Skywalker revealed that he was a clone created by Palpatine to rule the galaxy. Those revelations haven’t stopped the Snoke theories. In fact, Andy Serkis, who did the voice and motion capture work for Snoke, has some theories of his own.

During a spotlight panel at Fan Expo San Francisco 2024, Andy Serkis spoke about the evolution of Snoke. Since the villain was such a blank slate, Serkis was able to define some of his characterization. “Wouldn’t we all want to know a little bit more about Snoke? Including me,” Serkis joked.

“I knew nothing about the character when I went into the film. We wanted this dark force character and a powerful character, but one of the decisions that I did make was that I wanted him to feel like he had suffered some psychological damage, and he had suffered some physical damage.”

 Serkis considered Snoke’s physical appearance and worked backwards from there.

“Obviously, he’s scarred, and the front of his skull had been crushed. He was like a clone gone wrong, and so he kind of almost felt that in order to hold on to his power, he had to put himself out there in a stronger and more malevolent way just to kind of cover up the fact that he felt inadequate. Those are things I was thinking about.”

Between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, the internet was buzzing with Snoke theories. Serkis was amused by them, even if most of them were off the mark.

“The amount of Snoke theories that were going around, that I’m sure many of you were a part of, trying to work out who he was. It was a lot that was a lot of smoke and mirrors, because it was still being evolved as we were making it.”

Serkis was then asked if he knew Snoke was a failed clone.

“No, that was something we kind of happened upon and started to kind of think about.”

While we never got to see any of this explored onscreen, Snoke’s story can still be told. Whether it’s a Disney+ series, a novel, a Marvel Comic, or even a film, I think there are many opportunities to explore Snoke’s origin. I just hope Andy Serkis gets a chance to help tell that story.

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