Snoke Is Not A Sith In Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Although Supreme Leader Snoke looks a little like Emperor Palpatine, he's apparently a whole new type of evil.

Theories abound about the mysterious leader of the First Order, but Andy Serkis, who plays him in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, recently confirmed to Empire (via ScreenRant) that Snoke is not a Sith Lord like Palpatine.

"Snoke is bloody dark; way darker than Palpatine," Serkis said. "He's riddled with this osteoporosis so his body's twisted, like a corkscrew. He's incredibly damaged, so there's a bizarre vulnerability about him. Beneath that vulnerability, though, is this intense hatred... He's definitely not a Sith, but he's certainly at the darker end of the Force. Without giving too much away, that begins to unfold a little in this one."

This is significant for several reasons. The Sith have been the primary antagonists in the Skywalker saga, but this development implies that the ancient order was not restarted after the Galactic Civil War. It also pokes a big hole in theories that Snoke is actually Palpatine reborn or Darth Plagueis, Palptatine's former master who is believed to have found a way to cheat death.

Instead, it sounds like Snoke is something entirely else. Serkis previously hinted the 9-foot-tall alien humanoid could have been royalty before he was turned into a twisted villain. "He's slightly oligarch," Serkis said. "You know, he's not afraid of showing his fineries. There is a luxury that's native to him."

Still, director Rian Johnson said we won't get many definitive answers about Snoke in The Last Jedi. "Similar to with Rey's parentage, Snoke is here to serve a function in the story. And, you know, a story is not a Wikipedia page," Johnson said. "For example, in the original trilogy, we didn't know anything about the Emperor except exactly what we needed to know, which is what Luke knew about him, that he's the evil guy behind Vader."

We'll find out at least a little more when The Last Jedi arrives in theaters on Dec. 15.