Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
There were hundreds of questions leading up to The Force Awakens. But for every one question the film answered, it seemingly spawned a whole band of new ones. One of the biggest enduring mysteries is what is up with Supreme Leader Snoke.
Very little was revealed about this character during production, and the finished product didn’t really answer who he actually is. All that’s known is that he runs the First Order, he wants Luke Skywalker removed from the picture, and he’s responsible for turning Ben Solo into Kylo Ren. He is probably a Sith Lord, and he casts a pretty menacing hologram, but is there more to his story? Here are the five most likely, and most serious theories (sorry Boba Fett theorists):
3. Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious
What if Darth Sidious did learn to conquer death, like his master before him, and survived the end of Return of the Jedi? There would be plenty of parallels. Sidious wished to harness the Skywalker power for his own evil purposes, just as Snoke is doing with Kylo Ren. Sidious decided to kill Luke after he rejected his offer to join the Dark Side; Snoke’s sole mission is to find and destroy Luke. And both Sidious and Snoke seem to love to project themselves as giant holograms to assert dominance over their underlings.
It’s unlikely that the Emperor survived both the fall and the explosion of the second Death Star. Plus, this would be boring. Part of the excitement of a new trilogy is the promise of new villains and new threats. But the previous six films have ultimately been about Sidious’ attempt to control the Skywalkers, and it’s possible that this new story is continuing that motif.
