Andy Serkis Talks Supreme Leader Snoke with Empire.

Andy Serkis SnokeEmpire magazine will be releasing a special Star Wars: The Force Awakens issue on November 26. Until then here’s a brief taste of what will be covered in the issue. Read on for a brief comment by Andy Serkis on the mysterious character Snoke…

 

 

From Empire:

“It was quite an unusual situation,” Serkis tells us in the new issue of Empire. “I worked specifically with Domhnall Gleeson and with Adam Driver. My first day was basically standing on a 25-foot podium doing Lord Snoke without the faintest idea what he looked like… or in fact who he was! I was very high up, totally on my own, away from everybody else, but acting with them.”

“He is severely damaged. Although he’s a powerful leader, he comes across as vulnerable. Very scarred and disfigured.” But the actor assures us that Snoke is a guaranteed force to be reckoned with: “we used sort of a ‘Kongolizer’ method of having sound come out of speakers to give a sense of scale and distance for the character. So it was very challenging and scary, in fact probably one of my most scary film experiences I’ve ever had.”

We hope there will be more teasing articles by Empire in the upcoming days.

 

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112 thoughts on “Andy Serkis Talks Supreme Leader Snoke with Empire.

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:15 pm
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    Wonder how tall this character is going to be

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:19 pm
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    you know who is also very large in size ?? 🙂

    • November 18, 2015 at 7:24 am
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      YODA: “Size matters not. Judge me by my size do you?”
      ME: “But what about Snoke?”
      YODA: “Hm. Well, always exceptions there always are. Judge Snoke by his size. But otherwise, size matters not.”

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:21 pm
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    “Lord Snoke”… that is a new one. Not really unexpected but certainly new.

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:23 pm
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    “We know Snoke is a big deal, but he may be even bigger than first thought – and we’re talking some serious inches. 300 of them, to be precise.”

    Kind of the most interesting part of this article, if you ask me.

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:13 pm
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      Is that an actual quote form Serkis?

      • November 17, 2015 at 9:15 pm
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        No it’s a quote from Empire before the actual quotes from the Serkis interview.

        • November 18, 2015 at 1:06 am
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          He responded though, and it wasn’t edited out.

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:12 pm
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      I am down!

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:33 pm
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    “My first day was basically standing on a 25-foot podium doing Lord Snoke without the faintest idea what he looked like… or in fact who he was!”

    I hope this doesn’t effect the quality of his performance. It must have been difficult to figure out what voice suited the character best without having an idea of what he looks like.

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:34 pm
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    “My first day was basically standing on a 25-foot podium doing Lord Snoke…”

    Doesn’t necessarily mean Snoke is 25 feet tall. Could just mean he’s on a really high throne-like deal.

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:02 pm
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      Except he already said that his character was quite large. And this article states that they used special speakers to give scale to his character.

      • November 17, 2015 at 9:12 pm
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        Agree with Steve00020. Serkis stood on a 25 foot podium so other actors could look up to him in relationship to his size. If it was simply Serkis standing on a 25 foot podium, they’d do the performance capture on the floor of a sound stage, as usual.

        • November 17, 2015 at 9:14 pm
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          I’m starting to believe hes simply a 8 foot serpent dark lord. I just don’t know what to expect, it’s obvious we’re getting something we haven’t seen before.

      • November 17, 2015 at 11:36 pm
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        Scale as in someone standing far above others. We have a podium in the trailer that would fit the description. Maybe Snoke was shown in the first teaser, in the parade grounds-shot, and we don’t realize it until the movie comes out?

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:36 pm
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    Lord Snoke.. another hint right there. to quote Palpatine : ” It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create…life”

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:46 pm
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    I’m still hoping Snoke will be Darth Plagueis. He fits the profile: alien, very tall, elongated face, scarred, disfigured…

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:46 pm
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    Is he scared and disfigured due to surviving the assassination attempt by Palpatine? Interesting…..

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:46 pm
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    So Snoke is 25-foot tall ? And he is apparently referred to as a “Lord”.

    • November 17, 2015 at 8:49 pm
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      He’s not 25-foot tall. He stood on a podium that as 25-feet in the air.

      • November 17, 2015 at 9:03 pm
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        In order to duplicate his size. Serkis has stated in the past that this character was large.

        • November 17, 2015 at 9:08 pm
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          I think it’s unlikely that Snoke will be thirty feet tall in the film…unless he’s a Rancor, lol… I think “large” more than likely means around 7-8 ft, and the podium is merely a platform from which he speaks. But that would definitely be something we haven’t seen before.

          • November 17, 2015 at 9:15 pm
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            But he talks about using a speaker setup that helped to convey the scale of his character. A ‘Kongolizer’. I think he’s being straightforward — that his character will be around 30 feet tall. It’s definitely new.

          • November 17, 2015 at 11:07 pm
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            That is what I thought as well.

    • November 17, 2015 at 11:04 pm
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      When it´s not a Sith, at least we´ll call him “Lord” 🙂

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:56 pm
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    Ok. Let me go ahead and read into this of this for all you Plagueis theorists… 😉

    “It was quite an unusual situation [being a Sith Lord long presumed dead, now operating under another alias],” Serkis tells us in the new issue of Empire. “I worked specifically with Domhnall Gleeson [my minion] and with Adam Driver [my apprentice]. My first day was basically standing on a 25-foot podium doing Lord Snoke [Plagueis] without the faintest idea what he looked like [a Muun]… or in fact who he was [Plagueis]! I was very high up [Plagueis], totally on my own [Plagueis], away from everybody else, but acting with them [as Plagueis].”

    “He is severely damaged [Plagueis]. Although he’s a powerful leader [Plagueis], he comes across as vulnerable [still Plagueis]. Very scarred and disfigured.[Oh, C’mon! – Plagueis]” But the actor assures us that Snoke[Plagueis] is a guaranteed force to be reckoned with: “we used sort of a ‘Kongolizer’ method of having sound come out of speakers to give a sense of scale and distance for the character[Plagueis]. So it was very challenging and scary, in fact probably one of my most scary film experiences I’ve ever had [playing a bald disfigured creature – Gollum and yes, now Plagueis].”

    • November 17, 2015 at 10:05 pm
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      So who do you think he is then?

      • November 17, 2015 at 10:06 pm
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        Gollum. He said it clearly! Geez!

      • November 17, 2015 at 10:12 pm
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        I’m not going to say with certainty he isn’t Plagueis. I’m a fan of the novel, so I wouldn’t mind that at all, but I just feel that he will be an all-new character. I was just having a bit of fun with the interview. It seems that with every statement that comes out about Rey’s staff or Snoke – the nay-sayers on Plagueis say, “There’s the proof! He’s not Plagueis!” while the Plagueis theorists say “This actually proves that he IS in fact Plagueis!” It seems to be an endless debate that will only come to an end with the film’s release. 🙂

        • November 17, 2015 at 10:14 pm
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          True. I’m pretty miffed with all this 25 foot tall talk. Sounds ludicrous!

          • November 17, 2015 at 10:24 pm
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            I think people are misinterpreting the statement. He is speaking from a 25′ tall podium. That is all. I understand the tendency to lean towards “monster” with his use of the word “kongolizer”, but I think the use of the speakers was used to instill a natural fear and intimidation in the other actors, more so than because the character is actually King Kong-sized.

            Here’s Andy Serkis in 2006 talking about the use of the kongolizer in King Kong:

            “I wore a proper fur gorilla suit, with a sagittal crest and a big belly. I wore gorilla dentures as well. My vocalizations were sent through a processor—it became known as the Kongolizer—that lowered my voice a couple of octaves and projected it onto the set through huge speakers. So when Kong roared, it was very, very loud.”

            Yes, King Kong was massive, but I feel like it was the imposing volume and intensity of the voice that was the intent of the vocal processor, not merely to convey the size of the character.

          • November 17, 2015 at 10:48 pm
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            Ludicrous though it may sound, it appears to be true. Snoke is probably a giant.

          • November 18, 2015 at 12:35 am
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            Haha really? What makes you say that? It sounds mental.

          • November 18, 2015 at 6:04 pm
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            NO NO NO, Snoke is not 25 feet tall! Come on people use your common sense. He was standing on a 25 foot podium because he is either in the grand review of the First Order scene we saw in the trailers, or he is in a holocram above Kylo speaking to him.

          • November 18, 2015 at 6:51 pm
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            Yeah that’s what I thought at first about him being on a podium, but then everybody on here kept saying he’s actually 25 foot tall.

        • November 17, 2015 at 10:28 pm
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          Those Jedi Council dudes are gonna be all over this interview.

    • November 17, 2015 at 10:39 pm
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      Plagueis is dead. Palpatine killed him. No one has any reason to believe otherwise.

      “Luke, I am your father” moments are rare. They aren’t the modus operandi of any type of storytelling. Snoke is a new figure with provenance related to the original characters, but a new figure nonetheless. Let’s move beyond the Plagueis speculation.

      • November 17, 2015 at 10:58 pm
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        Let him speculate, we’ll all know in December, then again maybe not, may not know his Sith name if he is a Sith and not something new until a later episode.

        • November 17, 2015 at 11:15 pm
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          I think the thesis that Snoke is some sort of extra-galactic being related to the Force wizards (or whatever they’re called) from the Clone Wars show is far more interesting to speculate about. That’s part of the thrall the Yuuzhan Vong arc in the EU had. It was an never before seen threat that was truly menacing precisely because of its unpredictability. It did not fit into the conventional categories of the SW universe. Another reason to stop Plagueis-ing: It would seriously undermine the trajectory of the Anakin story if Plagueis were alive, because then that would mean the Sith weren’t completely destroyed at the end of ROTJ (bringing balance to the Force).

          • November 17, 2015 at 11:21 pm
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            Right so there’s no reason for Episode 7 at all from that perspective. Also how is there balance if Luke is still alive. Also there is obviously an awakening, perhaps balance doesn’t come till Episode IX. Vader throwing Sidious over the ledge didn’t bring balance if there is still a Jedi. We know there are more force users, what you’re implying is as if this whole sequel is fake because of Return of the Jedi. I’m not saying Plagueis is in the movie, but it would work. Even Palpatine said Plagueis knew how to cheat death. Just as much as people say he isn’t there I can see just as many reason why he could.

          • November 17, 2015 at 11:51 pm
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            That’s plainly false. Of course there’s a reason for Episode VII – the Skywalker family still exists! “Balance” refers not to the equal presence of light and dark, but the destruction of the dark by the light (Lucas said this in his commentary in the VHS ANH Special Edition). Anakin accomplished this by destroying the Sith and the Jedi prophecy was fulfilled. If the “Sith” are still alive, then Anakin did not fulfill the prophecy. The Knights of Ren are not the Sith.

          • November 18, 2015 at 12:45 am
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            Realistically we all know nothing. My point was that it really doesn’t matter, whatever happens will happen. I believe he could be in the new movies and the story could go on and there is enough there to support it if so. I also believe when Serkis said he’s completely new that it wasn’t him, yet people still believe. When I see the movie I’m sure I will enjoy it if he is or isn’t.

          • November 18, 2015 at 12:24 am
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            It was just a Play Guess… (hangs his head in shame and leaves the building…)

          • November 18, 2015 at 12:48 am
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            🙁 Cheer up, go visit Darth Vegas.

          • November 18, 2015 at 1:39 am
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            Yeah, and lose all my Muun-ey

          • November 18, 2015 at 2:34 am
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            Ugh… you really plague us with your terrible puns.

      • November 17, 2015 at 11:31 pm
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        He’d be “new” in the sense that Plagueis was never shown in any of the movies, until now (hypothetically speaking).

    • November 17, 2015 at 10:44 pm
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      Except that he doesn’t say that part that you added 😉

      And since he apparently dies at the hands of Kylo in this scene, I’d say the point is moot.

      • November 18, 2015 at 12:58 am
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        This could be anything. Nothing in this picture suggests what you are implying. This could easily be part of the torture scene.

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:07 pm
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    Could Snoke be what the First Order is hiding behind that giant red curtain on Starkiller base?

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:09 pm
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    25 feet tall??? If rumors are true and he manipulates the Senate, how does he even get into the senate chambers?

    • November 17, 2015 at 10:45 pm
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      He could remote in by hologram. Or maybe he just sends cryptic texts. More than likely he has allies or stooges in the Senate to do his bidding. He’s the Koch brothers. OMG. Snoke=Koch! They merged into one mega Koch monster, but the process was corrupted by the dark side leaving him/them scarred. Mystery solved.

    • November 17, 2015 at 11:03 pm
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      I think the 20-foot pedestal was actually part of the set and his height will be something more along the lines of Vader

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:11 pm
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    Lord Snoke = Jar Jar Binks = Plagueis 😉 Think about it, he’d set everything in motion. According to G. Lucas Jar Jar was really important to the story and come on, nobody can be that stupid / clumsy 😉

    • November 17, 2015 at 10:11 pm
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      That’s the stupidest theory I have ever heard of and it’ll never happen, BUT hypothetically, if it did, people would throw their food at the big screen, curse A LOT and storm out of the theater demanding refunds

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:12 pm
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    Well atleast now we know he isn’t a Yoda.

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:35 pm
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      what a relief

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:15 pm
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    “Lord Snoke” Sith confirmed.

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:19 pm
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      Yeah, Snoke is an allias. I believe we’ll come to find out that him and Maz have been around behind the scenes throughout the entire saga, but this is our introduction to the characters. Rumors are we find out who trained him in act 3 of The Force Awakens. My money is on Plagueis/Palpatine being his master.

      • November 17, 2015 at 11:02 pm
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        that sounds freakin amazing

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:40 pm
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      “Lord” is a generic title/prefix for a person of high social standing. It doesn’t automatically imply he’s a Sith.

      • November 18, 2015 at 2:00 am
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        “Lord” may be simply Sith “inspired.” Snoke may not be strictly Sith, but influenced by certain beliefs and practices of the Sith. Same as how the Resistance and First Order are not exactly the Rebels and Empire, but are new incarnations of each.

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:26 pm
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    If it walks like a Darth Plagueis and talks like a Darth Plagueis………………………………

    • November 18, 2015 at 1:01 am
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      Hey JJ said no Darth Vegas, so…. Never mind. 😉

    • November 18, 2015 at 6:54 am
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      No one making this movie cares about freaking Darth Plagueis.

      • November 19, 2015 at 7:05 am
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        no….only people like you who have no clue who Darth Plagueis is and what and who he is responsible for do not care…

        • November 19, 2015 at 9:02 am
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          Well, prepare to be disappointed, because it’s pretty clear that Abrams and Kasdan have no interest in him either.

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:36 pm
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    What I am liking is that the two most powerful characters of this film, Lord Snoke and Grand Master Skywalker, are the best kept secrets to this point.

    • November 17, 2015 at 11:58 pm
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      Probably because they are one and the same, only Snoke is the clone created from Luke’s severed hand… it’S NOt luKE…

      • November 18, 2015 at 12:07 am
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        Noice theory m8.

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:38 pm
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    quik thought against him being Plagueis, he has been talked about how he can use midi chlorians to create life, or to save a life. however, JJ has confirmed midi chlorians have been scrapped?

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:49 pm
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      Not sure what your point is. You can not mention the science behind it.

      • November 17, 2015 at 9:53 pm
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        but to me there would feel like they’ve adjusted it for they slightly more casual fans, not for us fanboys and girls

    • November 17, 2015 at 10:08 pm
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      Midichlorian’s have not been scrapped. Episode I is canon. JJ only confirmed that we would not hear the WORD midichlorian in his films.

  • November 17, 2015 at 9:48 pm
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    I really, really, really hope he doesn’t look anything like the shitty looking Cloverfield Monster unless they do what they did in the NJO and have him essentially be the force puppet of someone else. Having a lightsaber wielder fighting such a huge creature has a very high potential for cheese, I didn’t even like it with the Zillo Monster in Clone Wars.

    • November 17, 2015 at 9:52 pm
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      I hope they at least alter his voice for the final film too which sounded pretty silly in the trailer and I’m really not digging the Hollywood angle they appear to be taking this one with the “bigger IS badder” approach ie: a 30 foot tall villain, a tri-saber, and ANOTHER planet killing superweapon. I’m hoping they go deeper for VIII and XI like Empire rather than aim for more of a blockbuster spectacle.

      • November 17, 2015 at 11:52 pm
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        Whoa, you’re missing the point – it’s a STARkiller, no messing with planets no more… STARwars is going supersize, and for that you need a villain at least as big as King Kong, maybe even bigger…

        • November 18, 2015 at 2:24 am
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          True but it’s still a planet killer regardless.

      • November 18, 2015 at 9:50 pm
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        How was his voice “Silly” of course that’s quite a subjective thing.

        • November 19, 2015 at 12:36 pm
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          Too stereotypical villany, It got an unitentional laugh in the theater I saw it in. Jones doesn’t exactly sound completely like Vader in real life but he still sounded commanding without resorting to vocal cliches.

          Serkiss is no hack though and I’m hoping that was just a rough cut he was working on that won’t be in the finished film. It also sounded very mousey for a creature that is supposedly the size of a dinosaur.

    • November 18, 2015 at 12:11 am
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      I wonder… If he is huge, he must have an enourmous lightsaber, no?

      • November 18, 2015 at 1:54 am
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        That’s just a huge myth…

      • November 18, 2015 at 2:26 am
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        I’m getting nightmares of him doing Transformers-esque kung fu moves now that would look utterly ridiculous onscreen considering his size.

        • November 20, 2015 at 4:11 am
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          “He’s going to be very popular”- Igor

    • November 18, 2015 at 5:26 pm
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      I thought the Cloverfield Monster was pretty damn cool.

      • November 19, 2015 at 12:42 pm
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        One if the low points of the EU was having Leia fight a Hutt in a lightsaber duel. It was hard to read seriously and if this guy is the Sidious of the new trilogy then it’s going to look even more ridiculous onscreen. We’ve all seen how silly the Transformers fights look in the Micheal Bay films and it won’t look any better throwing lightsabers into the mix. It’s the stuff of piss poor fan fic and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone sued over some stolen ideas after it’s out.

  • November 17, 2015 at 10:08 pm
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    Well I hope he’s not a giant darkside Rancor looking to avenge his son Luke killed in Jabba’s palace 😛

  • November 17, 2015 at 10:40 pm
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    [Spoiler/Caution]

    • November 17, 2015 at 10:58 pm
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      So he is a dinosaur…and the First Order scientists used Vader’s DNA to fill in the gaps…that would explain his extreme size. lol. nice…

      • November 18, 2015 at 1:51 am
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        You think he’s communing with the mask AND taking orders from Snoke? No follower serves two masters.

  • November 17, 2015 at 11:24 pm
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    Some of this is starting to sound like the emporer from the WH40K universe

  • November 17, 2015 at 11:54 pm
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    There were speculations that this guy could be Snoke badass, but it looks like more Luke Skywalker to me, the hand and the mouth shape

    • November 18, 2015 at 12:50 am
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      Early concept for Kylo Ren. This is the, “I will finish what you started” scene.

    • November 18, 2015 at 3:02 pm
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      No.

  • November 18, 2015 at 1:14 am
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    Can we please fix the mobile site? This is getting annoying.

    • November 18, 2015 at 1:19 am
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      Just in case my post is not understandable as what I’m trying to read at times. This is my readable area on my screen. Has nothing to do with the comment. Makes it very difficult to read what people have to say. Please don’t make me go the other side of the internet to find my Star Wars info.

  • November 18, 2015 at 3:03 am
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    He’s a mix of pre-LotR Sauron and post-OotP Voldemort.

  • November 18, 2015 at 4:32 am
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    knowing that they don’t give famous actors prominent roles, i doubt we’ll see him more than 5 minutes, and if we do, at all, he’ll be unrecognizable a la maz kanata. same with von sydow. gleeson isn’t that well known so far, but still in the photos he looks very different, maybe the makeup or hairstyle or maybe because for once he has no beard.

  • November 18, 2015 at 6:13 am
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    Everyone is debating whether Serkis was saying he stood on a 25-foot tall podium because Snoke is that tall/large or if the character was actually standing on a high podium in the scene, but I’m surprised no one has suggested what to me is the more likely scenario. I think he will only appear in this film as a giant holo-projection, as the Emperor did in TESB. If it is similarly huge projection, then it makes sense for Serkis to be standing on a podium to give the other actors a sense of scale. It would also make sense for his voice to have been Kongalized. Finally, the best clue of all that this could be the case is that this movie is entirely an homage to the OT with TONS of parallels, so it would be par for the course if our first and only glimpse of Snoke in this film is a giant holo-projection speaking with Kylo Ren.

    • November 18, 2015 at 6:54 am
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      you may have just called it. I notice that the photo of him in mo-cap getup is all about his head and shoulders.

    • November 18, 2015 at 6:56 pm
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      I had the image of the Imperious Leader in the original Battlestar Galactica series, sitting high on his swiveling throne, speaking to lackeys (Balter, Lucifer) as they came & went…but hey, a 25′ Sith-like baddie works too!

  • November 18, 2015 at 8:28 am
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    Who cares if it is Plagueis.

  • November 18, 2015 at 1:35 pm
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    About his voice, remember that we’ve supposedly already heard it, in the very first teaser : “there has been an awakening”

  • November 18, 2015 at 3:02 pm
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    If his goal is related to the damage to his body, perhaps he possesses the body of Benicio’s character in VIII. Can’t think of a better actor to play the main villain.

    • November 19, 2015 at 9:41 am
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      This sounds interesting to be honest.

  • November 18, 2015 at 9:17 pm
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    Well we all know how Sidious killed Darth Plagueis, and we all know just how disfigured Sidious became from his own ligthning.

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