Of all the characters revealed in The Force Awakens, the most mysterious by far was the First Order's reclusive commander, Supreme Leader Snoke. Appearing only via the medium of a (colossal) hologram, Snoke remained safely hidden away aboard his Mega Star Destroyer, The Supremacy, during the events of the the first movie. In The Last Jedi, however, we will finally see the reclusive Dark Side user in all his corrupted glory. But, anyone hoping Snoke is going to bring up his full LinkedIn page for us all to goggle at, will be in for a sharp surprise.
"We got the whole story of Palpatine’s rise to power in the prequels, but in the original films he's exactly what he needs to be, which is just ‘The Emperor’" Johnson tells Empire in the new October issue. "He's a dark force: the scary thing behind the thing. That was entirely how I approached Snoke. I wasn't interested in explaining where he came from or telling his history, except where it serves this story.”
It seems details on Snoke's origin story are likely to be rather thin on the ground but, quite frankly, that's exactly how we like our big bads: mysterious and cloaked in secrecy. There won't be a complete character blackout, though, and anyone desperate for some more information on the film's other black-clad antagonist will be anything but disappointed.
“Writing Kylo Ren is just so much fun,” says Johnson “Star Wars boils down to the transition from adolescence into adulthood. That’s the heart of these films and Rey is most obviously the one that hangs on. But it’s also Kylo. In the originals you project entirely onto Luke, while Vader is the scary other — he’s the minotaur. The fascinating thing about Kylo and Rey is that they’re two sides of something. We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man; dealing with anger and wanting to separate from his family. He’s not Vader — at least, he’s not Vader yet — and that’s something I really wanted to get into.”
For more information and our full, eight-page feature on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, pick up the October issue of Empire, on sale Thursday. You can also Subscribe to Empire here.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14 December.