Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director Explains His Handling Of Snoke

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Rian Johnson's writing process for Star Wars: The Last Jedi was all about subverting expectations. The writer/director of the most recent film demolished fan theories left and right, revealing that Rey (Daisy Ridley) was the child of nobodies and having Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) unceremoniously kill off Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), hinting that he was no one special to the Star Wars canon.

"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," Johnson said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. "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."

As Johnson wrote towards that ending, which he felt would be "a really good setup going into the next movie," he started to ponder what Snoke's place would be in that world. "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," he said. "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."

Although the Kylo/Rey dynamic was cited by many as one of the most powerful parts of the film, many fans were sad to see their elaborate theories about Snoke's origin go by the wayside. "I do think it's interesting," Johnson said. "I never want to poo-poo the fans coming up with theories. It's part of the fun of being a Star Wars fan. If there is a place for it in another story, I hope it gets told."

He added that it would have "stopped any scenes dead" if Snoke had gotten up to give an elaborate speech about his origins. "It doesn't matter to Rey," he said. "If he had done that, Rey would have blinked and said, 'Who?' And the scene would have gone on." Johnson did, however, offer some hope to the theorizers, referencing one popular fan theory, which says that Snoke is actually Darth Plaugeis, an ancient Sith master mentioned by the Emperor in Return of the Sith, and teasing, "And I'm not saying he's Darth Plagueis!"

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters now.