Is That Really The Last We’ve Seen Of Snoke?
One of the characters who drummed up the most fan theories in between the releases of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was Supreme Leader Snoke, the ruler of the First Order. TFA offered few answers about him, simply positing him as a replacement for Emperor Palpatine, and many were expecting TLJ to shed some light on the big cheese.
As it happens, Johnson pulls off a ballsy bait-and-switch with the character. He’s built up as a major threat for the first two thirds of the movie… before he’s pretty easily killed off by his apprentice Kylo Ren. It’s a clever move storywise, as it makes Kylo an even more interesting, complex character. But it does leave us all thinking: “So, is that it?”
If it is, Snoke’s a big letdown as, not only was he bested so easily, but we didn’t learn anything about him. While we have a feeling he’ll stay dead, we would still expect there to be some flashbacks in Episode IX which fill in the gaps about how he tempted a young Ben Solo and what his origins are.