Lucasfilm / DisneyThe enigmatic and sinister Supreme Leader Snoke haunted the shadows of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, although his backstory, motivations and interest in Kylo Ren remain a mystery to us.
Thankfully the good people over at Cinema Blend have managed to tease a morsel of information from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) visual effects artists Rogert Guyett and Pat Tubach, specifically that Snoke’s look was taken from a rather surprising figure.
They claim that the menacing leader of the First Order is inspired by the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln – we’re hoping it was a loose inspiration.
To be precise, the imposing hologram of Snoke was inspired by the equally imposing, seated statue of honest Abe which resides within Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial.
washington.orgGuyett said:
Imagine when you’re a kid or whatever, you go up and you stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial. And you see old Lincoln in a huge chair. There’s a certain quality about that.
So, that was certainly sort of part of the inspiration for it all. But I think, hologram, you know? The idea really in that opening scene is sort of like, ‘What is going on here. Ok, it’s a hologram. Is he really this big?’ OK, once you figure out that it’s a hologram, of course it’s like, ‘Well how big is he?’
The news has got the already rabid fanboys wildly theorising that Snoke may be a power fallen from the light.
cosmicbooknews.comGuyett also emphasised Snoke’s importance in the upcoming films, saying:
The thing that I think will be revealed in future movies is more of, you know, you’re probably seeing more of Snoke. Obviously he’s an ongoing character and a lot of those things I think your fans and people on your site or whatever are analysing, will be discussed. A lot of that stuff will be revealed in the future.
So it seems that Snoke will remain a mystery until the next film at least, and we can confirm that he was a hologram in the film – what’s the betting on him actually turning out to be a Yoda sized creature?
Star Wars: Episode VIII will take us all back to a galaxy far, far away when it hits UK theatres on December 15 2017.
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