Even though Snoke died rather unceremoniously in Star Wars; The Last Jedi, fans still aren’t convinced there’s not more to the former Supreme Leader of the First Order than meets the eye. After all, we’re all familiar with the various theories out there that guess at his potential secret identity, ranging from the intriguing and plausible – a resurrected Darth Plagueis – to the totally insane – that Stormtrooper who bashes his head on the door.
Now feeding into the mystery of Snoke is a new detail that an eagle-eyed fan has noticed in the eighth episode in the saga. In the scene when Snoke’s head appears as a giant hologram so that he can berate Hux, the pattern of the windows behind him gives a Vader-esque shape and detailing to the big bad’s face. Note the triangular window behind his mouth that closely resembles Vader’s breathing apparatus.
Reddit user Thecircularblue is responsible for spotting this one, sharing their findings on the /r/starwarspeculation sub-reddit. Here’s what they made of the curious comparison:
“There’s an image of Darth Vader mixed with Snoke during his interaction with General Hux on the Star Destroyer bridge. Vader’s mask even sits correctly the way it would fit on Snoke’s face. The glint in Snoke’s eye show’s where his eye would be behind the mask’s lens. Not only that, but said glint, in addition to the rectangular ceiling light, shows where light would be reflecting off of the lens. It’s akin to when Vader is fed up with Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back, being that a leading dark side Force-user is castigating a subordinate officer. The images show how to see it (or the easy way by using the curve of your hand to cover Snoke’s face, from the left, up to his nose). It’s either a cool coincidence or intentional.”
We’re not sure that writer/director Rian Johnson was trying to suggest any connection between the two characters in order to fuel fan theories, but the description above makes it clear that the similarities between this scene and that moment from The Empire Strikes Back are probably not a coincidence. No doubt this was intended to be a deliberate homage by Johnson, with the impression of Vader in the background subtly drawing attention to this.
Though it hasn’t been confirmed that Andy Serkis will return as Snoke in Star Wars: Episode IX, all the evidence is pointing to the deceased dark Force-user making a comeback in J.J. Abrams’ closer to the Sequel Trilogy. But will it prove The Last Jedi‘s hint that there’s some link between Vader and Snoke? We’ll find out when the film blasts into cinemas on December 20th.
