Star Wars: Snoke’s origin finally revealed in The Rise of Skywalker

In Star Wars: The RIse of Skywalker, the origin of Supreme Leader Snoke was finally revealed. 

Warning: Spoilers for Star Wars: Episode IX.

When the Star Wars sequel trilogy first premiered by in 2015, one of the most curious parts about it was the origins of Supreme Leader Snoke, who at first appeared to be set up as the trilogy’s new big bad.

More from Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

• How many Oscars has Star Wars won?
• Looking back at 10 years of Star Wars: The films
• Domhnall Gleeson up for returning as General Hux
• Star Wars fan’s epic poster is The Rise of Skywalker ending reimagined
• Star Wars 25 features the first post-Rise of Skywalker canon story

“Who he was” and “where did he come from” were common questions floating around the internet, and dozens of theories were posed trying to answer them, with the most popular being  he was Darth Plagueis, the Emperor’s old master.

Fans hoped to get some kind of explanation regarding Snoke’s origins in The Last Jedi, but to many of our surprises, he was unceremoniously killed in the second act of the film by Kylo Ren, without any hints to his past being revealed.

Fans to the franchise were then unsure if we would learn of Snoke’s origins in Star Wars: Episode IX, seeing as Snoke appeared to be out of the picture and Ren had assumed the role of Supreme Leader of the First Order.

For those who missed it or have yet to see the movie but don’t mind this being spoiled, the Emperor revealed Snoke’s origin early on in the film.

When Kylo Ren arrived on Exegol to confront Emperor Palpatine, he walked passed a giant Vat that appeared to contain two bodies of Supreme Leader Snoke.

After that, the Emperor spoke to Ren through the force, using his own voice, as well as Snoke’s and Vader’s, stating “My boy, I have been every voice, you have ever heard, inside your head.”

This has seeming verified one of the more popular theories that the Emperor had been the one who created and manipulated Snoke through the force, as well as Vader, in order to help turn Ben Solo/Kylo Ren to the Dark Side when he was younger.

This also adds credence to the theory that when Snoke spoke to Kylo in his throne room in The Last Jedi, he was speaking about himself and not Rey when he said “I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true!  And now, foolish child, he ignites it… and kills his true enemy!”, after which, Kylo turned on his master and spared Rey’s life.

This could have been the Emperor baiting Kylo into turning on his master, believing that doing this would further his path down the Darkside.

This all means that the Emperor was the one manipulating Kylo from the very beginning, and Snoke was just a puppet used to lead him to the Emperor in the end.

He used the voices of Vader and Snoke to turn Ben Solo to the Darkside, and Snoke to train him as a Sith with the intention for the apprentice to one day turn on his master, and then have a powerful Sith Lord he could one day join his spirit with and take over the Emperor… before Rey came along that is.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently playing in theaters.