Rian Johnson Talks Supreme Leader Snoke’s Story In ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ [Spoilers]

**SPOILERS AHEAD** Seriously, if you haven’t seen “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” why are you reading articles about the movie, after it has opened? Stay on spoiler lockdown, go read something else, and then come back when you’re ready to dive into all the stuff that gets revealed. Just don’t blame us if you keep reading onwards….

**SPOILERS BEYOND THE POINT**

First introduced in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the all powerful Supreme Leader Snoke was an immediate sensation. Who was he? What was his story? Was he actually Darth Plaugeis, first referenced in “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith“? It turns out it actually doesn’t really matter. One of the brilliant strokes writer and director Rian Johnson employs in ‘The Last Jedi,’ is having Kylo Ren save Rey’s life by killing his master and mentor, Supreme Leader Snoke. It was a character moment and a great plot twist, and that’s how Johnson likes it.

“When I was working on the character of Kylo, I came to a place where I thought the most interesting thing would be to knock the shaky foundation out from under him at the beginning of this movie. By the end of this film, he’s gone from being a wannabe Vader to someone who is standing on his own feet as a complex villain taking the reins,” he explained to EW.

“But then the question is: What place would Snoke have at the end of that?” Johnson added. “That made me realize the most interesting thing would be to eliminate that dynamic between the ‘emperor’ and pupil, so that all bets are off going into the next one. That also led to the possibility of this dramatic turn in the middle, which could also be a really powerful connection point between Kylo and Rey.”

It’s a terrific idea, and certainly brings a much more complex dynamic between those characters, while also establishing an intimate showdown between Kylo and Rey for the next movie. Still, Johnson is open to the idea of another filmmaker filling in Snoke’s backstory, which is still very wide open to be explored. But it probably won’t be in this trilogy.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is now playing literally everywhere.