With the vast majority of Hollywood’s biggest movies trying to maintain a veil of secrecy right up until they hit the big screen, fans tend to keep themselves occupied in the meantime with speculation and theories regarding what could potentially unfold once the project in question is released.
A quick trawl through the internet will reveal countless possible plot and story directions for any number of upcoming blockbusters, and while many of them tend to be incredibly far-fetched, every now and again an online sleuth tends to be right on the money. Having dominated popular culture for over 40 years, the number of Star Wars fan theories stretch into the thousands, and while many of them end up being debunked, a fair few turn out to be confirmed weeks, months or even years down the line.
Before being unceremoniously killed off in The Last Jedi and then being dismissed as an inferior Palpatine clone in The Rise of Skywalker, the origins of Supreme Leader Snoke had been the subject of much debate. Before the ultimately disappointing reveal, people thought he could have been the very first Jedi, Darth Plagueis or even Mace Windu.
Before it was ultimately proven not to be the case, one of the more popular theories was that Snoke was a clone of Grand Moff Tarkin, given the vague similarities between the two and their shared love of evil deeds. While we now know that isn’t strictly true, Star Wars creature designer Ivan Manzella admitted in a recent interview that his initial designs for Snoke were indeed based on actor Peter Cushing, who played Moff Tarkin in A New Hope.
“J.J. Abrams mentioned a Hammer House of Horror doll, so I based him on Peter Cushing. When I did the maquette, there are elements in the cheekbone and profile.”
Fans would have probably been happier if Snoke did turn out to be a clone of Moff Tarkin instead of yet another MacGuffin used to bring Palpatine back into the franchise, but the news just goes to show that many of the fan theories circulating online that seem patently ridiculous shouldn’t always be dismissed right away, even if the connection turns out to be somewhat tenuous in the end.
