There was a time when you couldn’t move for articles about Supreme Leader Snoke. The gap between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was jam-packed with theories about who he was, what he wanted and how he was a hugely important figure within the Star Wars mythos. All of those thousands of words were neatly dismissed though when Kylo Ren bisected the Supreme Leader towards the end of Rian Johnson’s aforementioned sequel.Â
As someone who was absolutely sick of writing Snoke articles, seeing this put a big smile on my face. But there are still many unanswered questions about the character. Thankfully, then, it looks like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set to clear them up.
Of course, spoilers to follow from here on out. You’ve been warned.
According to our sources, Supreme Leader Snoke will reportedly appear in The Rise of Skywalker, but this isn’t going to be the resurrection of the same guy from the previous films. Instead, Snoke will be revealed to be just one of a series of clones that Emperor Palpatine created. He was using the Snokes as puppets to control the First Order from the shadows with the aim of rebuilding the Empire. As of yet, we don’t know who Snoke’s originally a clone of, but it seems logical that it’s a form of Palpatine himself. And given that this intel comes from the same sources who told us Leia would be Rey’s new trainer in the film, and that Rey and Palpatine have a “special connection,” both of which are now confirmed, we have no reason to doubt it.
One big question results from this, though: why would the Emperor need to work in the shadows at all? The First Order are unabashed Empire fanboys and I’m sure they’d love to follow a resurrected Palpatine on a new conquest. Well, my theory is that he was somehow weakened after his ‘death’ in Return of the Jedi, and has only regained his full power by the time of The Rise of Skywalker.
He knows full well that the moment he reveals himself he becomes target number one for the Resistance, too, so instead hides behind various disposable Snokes until he feels the time is right to strike. It certainly sounds plausible, but here’s hoping we get the full story in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on December 20th.
