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Star Wars Designer Reveals How Snoke Had Originally Been A Powerful Female Villain


Zack Snyder surprised fans when he revealed Emperor Palpatine as the villain behind Supreme Leader Snoke and The First Order in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Though there were rumors that Palpatine would appear in Episode IX, reports said that the villain's appearance would be limited to a short hologram sequence. Instead, Snyder fully resurrected the Emperor and made him the ultimate villain of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, turning Snoke into one of Palpatine's doomed creations.

Of course, that wasn't the only redesign of Snoke that Lucasfilm had over the years. The studio had multiple versions of the character before it began the sequel trilogy, and according to creature designer and sculptor Ivan Manzella, the earliest version of the character had even been decidedly female.

Speaking in an interview with the Force Material podcast, Manzella opens up about the talks that he had when he spoke with Kathleen Kennedy about plans for Snoke.

"I think initially when they spoke about her, she was female," Manzella told the interviewers, "Because the first image I did I based on a female, but then that just very quickly went away. So either it was just in passing or (something. But I think I just did one image and that was it, and no one else did anymore. I don't know if anyone did really, then from then on it just became the male."

Lucasfilm changed that in the end though, turning Snoke into nothing but the hollow husk of a clone of Palpatine. Such a shame – it would have been interesting to see Snoke as a powerful female villain. Don't you agree?

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is available for streaming on Disney+.

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