WARNING: The following article may contain potential spoilers, based on fan theories, from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which opens Friday worldwide.


With the worldwide premiere of Star Wars: The Last Jedi mere days away, questions about the film have kicked into hyperdrive: What's up with Rey's past? Why'd Luke punk out? Why does everything look like the Original Trilogy? And, perhaps most importantly, who the heck is Supreme Leader Snoke?

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Ever since his brief but memorable introduction in 2015's The Force Awakens, theories have swirled about the true identity of Kylo Ren's Dark Side mentor. Lucasfilm has insisted time and again that Snoke isn't a Sith, so then what does that make him? Fan theories range from "a rich guy with too much time on his hands" to "a rich guy who also happens to be possessed by a Sith spirit" to "he's Jar Jar Binks."

However, images from the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary recently leaked online, sparking a new -- and undeniably intriguing -- theory from one Reddit user. As you likely know, Luke Skywalker's hiding spot on Ahch-To is the site of the first Jedi temple. Set in the floor of the structure is a mosaic, depicting an oddly familiar-looking figure with a bulbous head identified as the Prime Jedi, the first of the order. Now, Snoke wants to kill the supposed last Jedi, Luke Skywalker.

There's a lot about the theory that makes sense from a thematic standpoint. Positioning Snoke as the first Jedi presents an interesting conflict with Luke; the last Jedi and the first. It envelopes in delicious irony Luke's struggle to rebuild the Jedi from scraps of lost history only to discover that his greatest foe is its founder. There's also the obvious point that Snoke, as the Prime Jedi, would be thousands of years old, explaining his wizened appearance. Of course, that last point may not mean much when you consider Palpatine looked a thousand years old, despite being a spry 88.

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Of course, "this guy kind of looks like this thing" isn't much of a basis for a firm theory. However, there's another tidbit nestled in the Visual Dictionary that, combined with speculation about the plot of The Last Jedi based on marketing, gives it a little more weight: Snoke wants Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren, because he believes that only someone from the Skywalker line can destroy the last Jedi (that is, Luke). If, as marketing seems to hint, Rey falls to the Dark Side while Ben redeems himself, and if Luke dies, that would then make Snoke the true last Jedi. A Skywalker (that is, Ben Solo) would be the only one able to destroy him. In fact, if Snoke truly believes only a Skywalker can destroy the last Jedi, his attempts to kill Luke may be to rid the galaxy of Skywalkers, not Jedi, thus protecting himself as the true last Jedi.

Why, then, if Snoke is the Prime Jedi, has he never looked in the first Jedi temple, where Luke has been in hiding? Being thousands of years old, he may have simply forgotten its location, but another theory presents itself, based on his scenes in The Force Awakens. It's interesting to note that Snoke isn't interested in hunting Luke, but rather preventing the Resistance from reaching him. His greatest concern seems to be preventing the rise of the "New Jedi." General Hux is perfectly willing to see BB-8 and the map destroyed, rather than captured, and Snoke's orders, upon learning that the Resistance has the map, is to prevent the Resistance from reaching Luke, rather than reaching Luke first. That raises the important question of what Snoke's true motivations are, which will hopefully be answered in The Last Jedi.

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If Snoke is in fact the Prime Jedi, or at the very least a very early Jedi, he could be a hard-line traditionalist. The mosaic on Ahch-To depicts the Prime Jedi in a yin-yang-ish balance symbol, implying the early members of the Order were concerned with the balance between the dark and the light. That in turn plays into the conflict between Luke and Snoke: Luke is pure light, so Snoke becomes pure dark to provide the necessary balance. By destroying Luke, Snoke could return to his original, balanced state. Of course, that interpretation runs directly counter to George Lucas' original concept of the Force, i.e. the Dark Side is the unbalancing factor, and "bringing balance to the Force," as Anakin Skywalker was prophesied to do, means removing the influence of the Dark Side.

There's also the seemingly obvious tidbit describing the Prime Jedi as the first of the Order, which certainly evokes the First Order. The First Order also certainly implies Snoke is setting himself up in direct opposition to the Jedi Order, possibly seeking to reestablish the First Jedi Order. Kylo Ren's lightsaber, revealed in Star Wars Rebels to be a model of lightsaber from thousands of years before the movies, also points to his age being "really dang old."


Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi stars Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke, Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux, Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Lupita Nyong’o as Maz Kanata, Benicio Del Toro as ‘DJ’, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, and the late Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa. The film opens worldwide Friday, Dec. 15.