Star Wars finally explains major Snoke plot twist to fans who weren't paying attention

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi is a controversial film that fans either adore or despise.

Personally, I’m in the former camp; I appreciate that The Last Jedi wasn’t afraid to break convention, but I can understand why that might be jarring to some.

The sudden killing of Supreme Leader Snoke is perhaps one of the moments that naysayers find most jarring as the character was being set up to be the trilogy’s big bad.

As soon as The Force Awakens was released, Star Wars fans began theorising who this odd creature might be, only for Snoke to be eradicated in one fell swoop.

The Last Jedi didn’t exactly explain much about Snoke beyond this, adding fuel to the fire of outrage from many.

It was in The Rise of Skywalker that the nonsense about Snoke being a failed Palpatine clone arose.

As much as I adore The Last Jedi, I’ve always disliked The Rise of Skywalker; I can’t help but wonder what Last Jedi director Rian Johnson’s interpretation of Snoke was when he decided to kill the character off.

Well, in the year of our lord 2025, he’s finally given his thoughts.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Johnson confessed that while he did communicate with Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams when concocting his Last Jedi script, he simply found Kylo Ren to be a better central villain.

“That was, in reading J.J.’s script, and watching the dailies, and seeing the power of Adam Driver’s character. The interrogation scene in the first movie, between Rey and Kylo, was so incredibly powerful,” he began.

“Seeing this complicated villain that’s been created, I was just so compelled by that. This is all a matter of perspective and phrasing, but to me, I didn’t easily dispense with Snoke. I took great pains to use him in the most dramatically impactful way I could, which was to then take Kylo’s character to the next level and set him up as well as I possibly could.”

He continued, “I guess it all comes down to your point of view. I thought, ‘This is such a compelling and complicated villain. This is who it makes sense going forward to build around.’”

So there you have it, confirmation that Abrams and Johnson did disagree on who the trilogy’s key villain should be.

Honestly, I can see both sides and it would’ve been interesting to see Abrams’ version of events play out, but that doesn’t take away my love for The Last Jedi.