Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi raises a serious number of questions in its story, and refuses to answer several of the ones raised by The Force Awakens. Chief among these is the debate of Supreme Leader Snoke and where he came from in the Star Wars galaxy. The decision to kill the villain without revealing anything about him was a bold choice, and CinemaBlend's own Eric Eisenberg recently sat down with Johnson to discuss the rationale behind that decision. Addressing the Snoke-shaped hole in the Star Wars story, Johnson explained that it just wasn't crucial for his specific film, saying:
In terms of the identity of Snoke, again, I wrote the script while they were shooting [The Force Awakens], so I wrote it before all of the 'Who is Snoke' theories started coming up. Which I love, and I think it's a huge... and also, what I'm about to say as to why I didn't address [his origins] in this movie. I don't want to imply that that's not interesting, or that's not cool, or it doesn't matter. I think, who knows, they might address it in Episode 9. They might address it elsewhere. What I knew was that in this film, similar to with the Emperor in the original trilogy, it's just not what this story is about. And the Emperor in the original trilogy, you know nothing about him. Because you don't have to! It's not what it's about. ... The Emperor is in two [scenes] of the movie, and you know everything that you need to know about him. It's the exact same thing in this trilogy. As opposed to the prequels, where you know everything about him because you need to. Because that's the story.
So it's not that Rian Johnson doesn't want to know where Supreme Leader Snoke came from in the Star Wars universe before his arrival in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and his last appearance in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It's more a matter of telling the right story and including the character in the right way. In the same way that the Original Trilogy never really explained Emperor Palpatine (and didn't bother to for decades), so too does The Last Jedi not really need to provide any context for who Snoke is to make the tale work. People have theories, and those theories may be proven right or wrong by the time the next film premieres, but that's not important right now.
Beyond that, Rian Johnson also made sure to note that people in the Star Wars universe likely don't have the same encyclopedic knowledge of the lore as fans do. Because of that disparity, a reveal of Snoke as a known Sith Lord in Star Wars: The Last Jedi likely wouldn't have made sense to someone like Rey. Johnson addressed this potential story issue and said:
So I always say, in any one of the scenes, if Snoke had stopped and done a 30-second monologue about how he's Darth Plagueis, you can see it just would not have ... and I'm NOT saying that he is! [Laughs] You can see how it would have just stopped the scene cold. None of the characters who are interacting with him would have really cared. Rey would have just blanked and said, 'Who?' It really wouldn't have made... it just didn't fit in the linear progress of this story.
Regardless of how some fans feel about the unanswered Snoke questions, the box office numbers don't lie. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is already off to a great start at the box office (and with critics), so check out our To 3D guide to figure out the right format choice, and then make sure to purchase your tickets for the latest Star Wars adventure!
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