WARNING: This article contains spoilers about ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi.’ If you don’t want any information about the movie spoiled for you, then the time to stop reading is very clearly right now!
Unless this is your first time ever visiting our site – in which case, welcome, strange visitor! – you are keenly aware that ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ hit theaters this past weekend. While it’s sure to make a large amount of cash for Disney (initial estimates are somewhere in the $225 million range – that’ll help offset a bit of the Fox acquisition cost, eh?), the initial reactions to the movie have not been the gushy love-fest that the House of Mouse was surely hoping for.
Many folks left the theaters with many more lingering questions than they had anticipated. One of the biggest head-scratchers seems to be confusion over how much about Supreme Leader Snoke was left unanswered. The character was plainly killed by Kylo Ren, yes, but so much more remained: was he a true Sith Lord? Was he a long-living or reincarnated version of classic “Legends” villain Darth Plagueis? Did he really deserve such a Darth Maul-esque death?
‘The Last Jedi’ director Rian Johnson had a chance in a recent post-premiere interview to chat about Snoke, and how his pseudo-apprentice Kylo Ren may be evolving after killing the Supreme Leader:
“When I was working on the character of Kylo, I came to a place where I thought the most interesting thing would be to knock the shaky foundation out from under him at the beginning of this movie…By the end of this film, he’s gone from being a wannabe Vader to someone who is standing on his own feet as a complex villain taking the reins.
“But then the question is: What place would Snoke have at the end of that?…That made me realize the most interesting thing would be to eliminate that dynamic between the ‘emperor’ and pupil, so that all bets are off going into the next one. That also led to the possibility of this dramatic turn in the middle, which could also be a really powerful connection point between Kylo and Rey.
“It would have stopped any of these scenes dead cold if [Snoke] had stopped and given a 30-second speech about how he’s Darth Plagueis… It doesn’t matter to Rey. If he had done that, Rey would have blinked and said, ‘Who?’ And the scene would have gone on… and I’m not saying he’s Darth Plagueis!”
It’s possible that more of Snoke will be provided for fans in tie-in materials or directly on-screen in ‘Star Wars: Episode IX,’ but for now, fans will simply have to theorize and wonder.
‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ is in movie theaters now.
