Nearly ten years after the debut of theStar Warssequel trilogy withStar Wars: The Force Awakens,Supreme Leader Snokeactor Andy Serkis has revealed more about the evolution of his mysterious villain. Snoke was one of many brand-new characters in theStar Warssequel trilogy’s cast, and his unknown origins made him the center of perhaps some of the most fascinating yet hilarious theories theStar Warsfandom has ever seen. These theories surrounding Snoke became infamous, especially onceStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerrevealed that Snoke was nothing more than a strandcast clone of Palpatine.

Speaking exclusively to Screen Rant, however, Serkis revealed more about how Snoke’s character came to be over time, and how much agency he had in bringing elements of Snoke to life.“We were really making it up,” Serkis confessed. “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 – obviously, his scar and his skull being crushed – and he was like a clone gone wrong.”

Snoke with a lightsaber stabbed through him in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Serkis also revealed that this was prior to learning that Snoke was, indeed, a clone: “That was something that we happened upon and started to think about.”

This psychological depth for Serkis had everything to do with Snoke’s sense of self-esteem. “He almost felt that, in order to hold onto his power,“Serkis explained,“he had to put himself out there in a stronger and more malevolent way just to cover up the fact that he felt inadequate.” Of course, even as Serkis portrayed these complicated feelings,not everything about Snoke and his origin had been decided yet.“But in all honesty, there was a mystery around it, and it was crazy,” Serkis revealed. “It was still being evolved as we were making it.”

Rey from the prequel trilogy to the left and Luke from the prequel trilogy to the right in front of various images from the sequel trilogy in red and blue hues

Snoke Was Yet Another Unplanned Entity In The Star Wars Sequels

No One Really Understood His Mystery

What this means forStar Warsis that Snoke was just another element in the sequel trilogy that was more fluid than many may have realized. Snoke wasn’t a character thatStar Warshad even fully fleshed out yet when audiences were creating their intense Snoke theories. According to Serkis,Snoke was a mystery for most of the time that the actor portrayed him. Given how many other characters and elements of the sequel trilogy were also fairly unplanned during the course of its creation and release, this isn’t too surprising to hear, but it is fascinating all the same.

Our Take On The Fluid Nature Of Snoke’s Evolution

This fluidity works for Snoke mainly because of Serkis' portrayal, and the thought he put behind the character even without knowing much about him - butit’s also a somewhat dangerous sign of why some things went wrong in the sequel trilogy. Snoke is meant to be the Palpatine-esque villain of bothThe Force AwakensandStar Wars: The Last Jedi, and yet his characters' origins were still largely a mystery, even to the actor who was portraying him. While this did give Serkis a unique amount of freedom, it also had some bad implications.

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While not everything inStar Warshas to have deep lore connections, a figure as important as Snoke really should.It sounds as if Snoke’s Palpatine connection wasn’t even established until after Snoke had died inThe Last Jedi, even if it was something that was discussed. Palpatine’s return has long since been a point of contention forStar Warsfans, particularly because it wasn’t strongly hinted at in the first two movies of the trilogy. Perhaps if Snoke had been given a more firmly established backstory inStar Warsearly on, then Palpatine’s return may have felt more natural.

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Star Wars is a multimedia franchise that started in 1977 by creator George Lucas. After the release of Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope (originally just titled Star Wars), the franchise quickly exploded, spawning multiple sequels, prequels, TV shows, video games, comics, and much more. After Disney acquired the rights to the franchise, they quickly expanded the universe on Disney+, starting with The Mandalorian.