“There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side and the light.”
Those ominous-sounding words were spoken by an unseen character in the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and we soon learned they were uttered by Andy Serkis. However, we've never received a glimpse of that character, nor did we even learn his name. Today at least some of that changes as we've learned Serkis will be playing a character named Supreme Leader Snoke, and he'll be depicted totally through performance capture, which isn't surprising.
The image was shot by Annie Leibovitz (via StarWars.com) and it shows Serkis all suited up for the performance capture process, something he's obviously quite familiar with after the Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes movies. We still know practically nothing about who Snokes is, though. Is he a Sith lord, possibly on the same level as Darth Sidious? His title definitely suggests a villain of some kind. He's powerful enough to sense a major change on both sides of the Force, so he's clearly not somebody to be trifled with.
Let the wild theories begin. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens December 18th 2015.
