The first character we ever heard in The Force Awakens' marketing was Supreme Leader Snoke, who declared in a sinister voice, "There has been an awakening." Despite that, we have virtually no idea who this guy is or even what he looks like, but actor Andy Serkis has just offered a few clues.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Serkis said that because his performance is motion capture, he didn't even know what Snoke looked like while on set. In fact, he and J.J. Abrams continued to change the look of the character during post-production.
"So J.J., after we shot last year, we’ve had a series of sessions where I’d be in London at The Imaginarium, my studio, while he’s been directing from L.A., and we’ve literally been creating further additions and iterations to the character," Serkis said. "That’s been fascinating."
But who exactly is Snoke? Serkis described him as an enigmatic but strangely vulnerable character who has suffered a lot of damage in the past. He wasn't involved in the conflict between the Empire and the Rebellion, though.
“No, he’s a new character in this universe. It is very much a newly-introduced character,” he said. “He’s aware of what’s gone on, in the respect that he has been around and is aware of prior events. I think it’d be fair to say that he is aware of the past to a great degree.”
Serkis isn't the only actor performing with motion capture in The Force Awakens. Abrams recently shed some light on Lupita Nyong'o's animated character, Maz Kanata.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters on Dec. 18.