With Rogue One: A Star Wars Story set to open this week, it’s easy to forget that we’re just a little over a year away from the release of Star Wars: Episode VIII.
Nevertheless, we’re starting to get a few trickles of information and rumour about the second instalment of the Sequel Trilogy, and now the folks at Making Star Wars have a report on Supreme Leader Snoke, which suggests that, unlike Star Wars: The Force Awakens where he was fully CGI, Lucasfilm will be using practical effects to bring the character to life in Episode VIII.
The site reports that for Episode VII, “it appears, at least in part, that Snoke will not be a character generated in a computer. Instead he will be a huge puppet around seven to eight feet tall, taking several people to operate and a man inside a suit to make him walk. Stylistically, it seems as if Snoke may be CGI generated for the holographic communication sequences, but when he has scenes in Episode VIII next to real flesh-and-blood humans like Kylo Ren he will be a practical puppet with facial features operated by the crew.”
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The report goes on to speculate that Snoke could have scenes alongside Kylo Ren, General Hux and Captain Phasma which take place in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of Starkiller Base, and that these could be intercut with the sequences of Rey and Luke Skywalker on Ahch-To (the planet seen at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens).
If the report is true (and Making Star Wars certainly has a good track record), then it would seem to put to bed the speculation that Snoke could actually be small in stature, a la Master Yoda.
Star Wars: Episode VIII is set for release on December 15th 2017 and sees returning cast members Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Simon Pegg (Unkar Plutt), and Warwick Davis joined by new additions Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy), Laura Dern (Jurassic Park), Kelly Marie Tran (Ladies Like Us) and Jimmy Vee (Pan) as R2-D2.
Originally published December 12, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
