Star Wars Episode VIII Rumor: A More “Practical” Snoke.
With Rogue One‘s release imminent, the winds turning the rumor mill are starting to change toward Star Wars Episode VIII. Case in point, there’s a new, spoiler-free rumor about how Lucasfilm’s approach to Supreme Leader Snoke will be different the second time around.
From Making Star Wars:
For Star Wars: Episode VIII 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.
We don’t know exactly how much screen time Snoke has in Episode VIII and that makes it impossible to say he’s almost always a puppet in the film or CGI. But we do know the puppet is pretty impressive and appears to be articulated in such a way it seems it is more than an elaborate stand-in.
We suspect that the film may show us some of Kylo Ren, General Hux, and Phasma meeting with Snoke after the destruction of Starkiller Base. It has been confirmed that the film begins mere moments after Star Wars: The Force Awakens. With a lot of the film taking place on Ahch-To where Rey and Luke are, it seems as if we might get the juxtaposition of Luke and Rey between Snoke and Kylo. It would seem the puppet Snoke would be more powerful and interesting to look at than a CGI character, of which audiences are continually critiquing the visuals.
Jason Ward also notes that he does not believe it to be likely that we’ve met Snoke in any visual Star Wars media before, citing the character’s inhuman body proportions as a sign that the character is indeed an alien and not a human (so it sounds like you might want to send those “Ezra is Snoke”, “Snoke is a clone of Darth Vader”, and “Snoke is an older version of Kylo Ren who traveled back in time” theories to the trash if you haven’t already done so).
From the sound of things, Snoke’s physical appearance will remain the same as it did in The Force Awakens, but the intent will be to make the character feel more “real”. In all likelihood, the approach to Snoke in this movie will likely be similar to what they did with Unkar Plutt – have a practical costume for an alien character and use a digitally-constructed face to allow the character to show a greater range of emotion, which should be in-line with Andy Serkis’s existing expertise with the motion-capture format. We’ll be sure to keep you covered on Episode VIII news and rumors as they hit.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Great news. After everything they said about practical fx , Snoke really took me out of TFA. Don’t understand how they could have dropped the ball when Maz looked convincing, as did the digital BB8. Gollum was far more realistic all those years ago.
I think it was the fact that he was a giant hologram that made it look off. He had an unnatural glow and didn’t have any weight despite being massive. I don’t think a hologram of a giant puppet would look any better.
If you pay attention to the scenes, Snoke actually looks really good. It’s that terrible lighting job they did from above that spoils it.
Good god all those theory sound horrible at least the “Jar Jar is Snoke” is still on the table XD.
Sounds good to me, I hope they do a mix of mo-cap and CGI, that seems to be the magic number. People forget that like all technology, puppeteering has come a long way since even the days of episode I. But I want Snoke to be more active in this next film then a puppet would allow. Not like back-flips or anything out of episode 2 Yoda, but a little more threatening. Right now he is suffering from Thanos Syndrome of “you just WAIT until I get out of my chair” lol. Besides why get Mr. Mo-cap himself and then do 100% practical effects. Balance in all things.
I don’t care if it is CGI or puppet. I just I don’t want him to be an Palpatine/Emperor copy (black cloaked old man-dark side user-empire leader).
Unfortunately it’ll be most probably who you’ll finally get. And he’ll die killed by redeemed Kylo Ren when he’ll be too busy frying Rey with his force lightning.
Lol
Will it be on a half-finished (but fully operational) Starkiller Base 2, in the middle of a giant space battle? 🙂
Yes, how did you know? 😀 But only after Finn and Chewie disable the force field and shortly before Poe fly into Starkiller II reactor and blow it to pieces. It’ll also be the second trap in Admiral Ackbar’s career.
IT’S ANOTHER TRAP!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db6f3eaefd7229c98b18934d7ede6a0b93829c7cb97e036d4aeb6e7e7f3ac29d.jpg
Lol
And Benedict Del Toro in his cape will say “that thing is operational!”
Just let Serkis to do what he’s the best in. Don’t just do practical effect for sake for telling everyone he is practical, we all know Serkis is a God of Motion Capture, also, motion capture now can be better looking than practical effect, for example: Gollum and Caesar
They aren’t doing it for bragging rights, they are doing it because snoke didn’t look real in tfa and it really took a lot of people out of the movie
What takes me out of the movie is Snoke himself. Who is he and where has he been while Vader and Palpatine were running things? Hiding cowardly. I just don’t buy into his character.
Pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Wish they would go the Voldemort route and put practical effects on Serkis and augment that with CGI. The full on mo cap character just really stuck out in Force Awakens.
I do believe that that is what the writers of the article envision them doing, similar to Unkar Plutt. Unless I’m totally mistaking what it is you are saying.
…yeaaaahhh, suddenly moving to a giant puppet just sounds… dumb.
I’m not convinced Snoke is real. I’m in that camp of “he’s some kind of manifestation of the dark side of the Force”, and I can’t imagine that as a Jabba-style puppet. It made sense with Jabba, since he’s an alien monster. Aliens as puppets make more sense to me. They’re physical, they exist naturally in the universe.
Unless it turns out that Snoke IS an alien that was just corrupted (something that would probably disappoint me more than anything), I don’t want to see Snoke as a puppet.
Except we know he’s an alien…a 7-8 foot tall alien, as discussed last year in an interview (Variety if I recall correctly) by the guy at Lucasfilm/ILM that created him.
Hoping he’s a 8 foot holocron protector from the past. If he’s a new character.
^it also made sense with Jabba. Because of his species he couldn’t really move.
You sure about that? Lucas decided he could move in IV.
Don’t remind us….nooooo!
XD
If he is truly a unknown character….then I’d prefer to see him as a sith holocron protector. Personally I think he’s gonna have a terrible back story.
Could he be a Whill?
That’s my hope. I don’t know if we have seen whills in canon but it would really up the ante if he is an ancient being like that. I want smoke to be a new character (i.e. Not plageius) but I also think it would be lame to just have him be a random guy. Having him be a whill would be such a cool reveal- particularly since TFA’s novelization opens with a quote from the journal of Whills
i can’t wait see snoke rip hux, kylo and phasma a new one for letting starkiller base get destroyed. “Do you have any idea what this is going do to my credit?!”
https://youtu.be/3F1d3QWsyk0
exactly.
Padamommy or panda bear, whatever the hell her name is!
My jizz blanketed the computer screen. Please let this rumor be true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuha5Im1RaQ
THIS ISNT THE 80s PEOPLE! Don’t let a fucking 7-8 foot tall puppet take away from the rest of the CGI in the film simply for the sake of nostalgia and bragging rights “Oh mah gah! We more practical effects everywhere!!”
-Every single interview that had to do with TFA. You have the God of motion capture in your hands..use him. We’ve seen what ILM can do..it’ll work.
This is rather disappointing news. Seeing Snoke in TFA made me think: “hmm, maybe they will accept CGI as long as the character calls for it..” Not anymore…
What would give you that idea?
I’m fine with it. Yoda in the OT (for the most part) still holds up to this day. Can’t say that about most CGI.
That said… this is ILM. You now it’ll be a hybrid. They’ll use the puppet for like 80% of it and smooth the rest out with CGI to breathe in more life.
Honestly just leave it to the experts. They are doing a fine job so far.
It’s not about nostalgia and bragging rights. It’s about doing as much as you can practically, and doing what is impossible to do practically in CG. Which is how the best-looking fantasy movies are made. And a real humanoid character on a set with real cloth and lighting still looks better than something generated on a computer, and offers the actors something to play against other than green nothing. There was no reason Snoke, just sitting on a throne in hologram form, couldn’t have been played by a guy in makeup in TFA. But having him 7-8 ft tall and seen in person requires a different approach than CG.
Then perhaps a mix of the two as “Adavanter” mentioned would probably be best bet. A puppet cannot breath naturally, and it cannot capture the same emotions and facial expressions as say, motion capture technology, and that’s not an opinion it’s a fact. The things motion capture can achieve now a days is phenomenal. And the reason why Snoke didn’t look his best during TFA, was due to his design not being finalized until much later than originally planned. So given the right amount of time, I’m almost 100% confident ILM can use their resources to their full potential, and deliver something that would put a damn puppet to shame.
Boy, I sure wish a movie or two in the last twenty years could have found SOME way of having, an actor appear larger than life while they interacted with the rest of the cast.
They have. See Jabba the Hutt puppet, circa 1983. Still looks great 34 years later.
(THAT’S THE JOKE – SEE ALSO 6 GODDAMN LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIES, 8 HARRY POTTER FILMS…..)
i understand completely, but in this case i think we’re going to get the best of both worlds(real and CG). plus mr serkis is pretty darn good in live action too.
Yea I hope you’re right..I wouldn’t be opposed to blending the two together..and who knows, maybe they have something under their sleeve that will surprise us all. We shall see!
live action? He won’t be able to control the puppet the way he was able to control the cg character…. the motion capture system captures everything an actor does, including expressions and such.
But he’ll still be able to ACT. That’s the most important part.
yeah but not the same way as he was able to do gollum or Caesar…
Although physical acting is important, I think it’s bad to marginalize voice acting. This is assuming they don’t just use CGI to mask the face of the Snoke puppet using Andy Serkis’ motion capture.
the face is not everything… gestures and postures are important aswell, and motion capture conveys all of the actor’s performances.
Cool. But Andy Serkis doesn’t always need to be typecast as “the mo-cap guy”. He’s a great actor with or without an ugly gray suit.
I agree on that (see The Prestige for reference), but here, if they make Snoke as a puppet/animatronic/whathever, that wouldn’t allow him the same acting freedom, also because of the dimensions of said puppet, he wouldn’t be able to control it himself; Mo-cap is a great system. Maz Kanata was a very well-done cg character, or, a better example is Cesar in the planet of the apes films, expecially Dawn and as seems in the trailer War For The Planet Of The Apes.
meh
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cca2d6a6173144d5c1592b4bec8442a1cbe7e0ab0c26c1d614b07e14ad1b5f20.png
For anyone that’s interested in that Star Wars franchise, the cast of Rogue One will be the only guests on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE on Friday December 9th 11:35pm Eastern / 10:35pm Central. http://abc.go.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live/news/schedule/jkl-schedule-for-12052016
MORE NEW FOOTAGE!!!!!!!!!!
Watch at your own risk!!!
https://youtu.be/mzX0jyZ2V84
I don’t know how I feel about new takes of the same scenes being thrown everywhere. Immeasurable to awesome. Felt weird honestly.
Yeah, horrible in my opinion. Maybe it fits better in the context/scene.We’ll see. Hope they use the other take though.
Loved immeasurable too! He looks silly saying awesome.
Yess! I’m so happy we are getting back to episode 8.
Me too.
except it looks like Rogue One is going to beat TFA multiple times over? imho
Close but TFA still is top
I really hope they stick to CGI. This will probably look weird.
They may use CG to enhance the puppet performance, which is something that works great because you’ve got real elements on the character to relate with. Look at Unkar Plutt.
Oh don’t worry…. viewers will say it’s too practical. What I find interesting instead is the fact that here they say it has the same height as in the hologram. I personally always thought that the hologram snoke was bigger than how big he actually is…
The hologram was much larger than 7 or 8 feet tall.
ohh… whatever. I don’t use american measures in my daily life, as I’m european.
I don’t think it said that.
“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”
So basically CGI for the holograms, no matter the size, but puppet 7-8 feet high for practical.
Yeah. I was wondering where they were going with this. I sort of like the idea of Snoke being particularly large. I don’t necessarily think it would work to have in 20 feet tall, but a couple feet taller than your average human might be sort of neat.
This approach to Snoke reminds me of the bigatures that WETA created for Peter Jackon’s The Lord of the Rings…or even the human-sized puppets used for the Skeksis and Mystics in Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal…and, more recently, let’s not forget the Jim Henson Creature Shop’s work for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are in which the puppets had facial features enhanced through CGI.
Never mind the “look” if they can’t some how tie him into the previous movies…it’ll just continue to be a weak character. High hopes that 8 can repair his appearance and presence and a back story that makes sense in the overall arc.
Totally. Some may say its not needed as the Emperor’s rise to power didn’t have a backstory originally, but the prequels were done, so it needs to somehow link together and I’m not sold on books and comics being relied upon to fill in the blanks.
Episode 1 premiered over 15 years after the Classic Trilogy wrapped up. People were able to deal quite well with a villain without a completely explained backstory for a long time. And we’re only one movie in. There are still two movies to go in which we might get an on-screen version of Snoke’s origins. Dismissing the character because you don’t find out where he’s from within the first 15 minutes of the movie is silly.
Where did I say I’m dismissing his character?
Cw mentioned that Snoke will “continue to be a weak character” without some sort of back story being integrated into future Star Wars episodes to which you replied “Totally”
Yeah – so I believe he weak and needs development in the next 2 films. The chances are some back story will emerge, and yourself lean towards this as well. I didn’t say I dismissed character within 15mins of TFA, which isn’t possible as he’s not shown in those minutes……
Whatever. There’s nothing to “repair”. Remember, the Emperor has almost no role whatsoever until Return of the Jedi aside from a brief hologram scene and two or three on-screen mentions.
It was all new, this is the sequel to those movies….therefore, if you want to keep story arcs from first 6…he needs to fit with those.
So, are you suggesting that there really can’t be any totally new characters? Unless, that is, the character can be integrated into the previous 6 movies?
No, but based on his comments about everything he knows and that the first 6 had a definite story arc…HE needs to tie in.
No, he doesn’t.
If Snoke’s history ends up being closely tied into the story lines of the first two trilogies, then so be it. But there’s no way that it NEEDS to be. Continuing the story from the first two trilogies into this one does not mean that every villain has to be part of what came before. Snoke is obviously part of the events of this galaxy. I mean, he’s THERE and seems to wield an inordinate amount of power. But to suggest that the ball is dropped if he’s not intimately tied into the story of Skywalker and Palpatine from the beginning seems to suggest a real lack of imagination.
Lack of imagination on there part. Palps would have been very aware of any dark sider as strong as spoke is supposed to be. And the writers decided to make sure that he knew about the redemption of vader…which no one else knew, except for 3 people. So, yes…he has to be connected or it will suck worse than it already does.
” Palps would have been very aware of any dark sider as strong as spoke is supposed to be.”
Why? He was a powerful Sith, but hardly omniscient. And perhaps he did know about Snoke. But that isn’t quite the same thing as Snoke being intertwined with the previous Skywalker-centric story line.
“And the writers decided to make sure that he knew about the redemption of vader…which no one else knew, except for 3 people.”
As far as we’re aware, Han, Luke, Leia, and Ben knew about that. That’s four people. And Ben was seduced by Snoke. There’s a good chance he learned about Vader from him.
doubtful, he learned from Ben…go back and watch the scene where he describes Vaders career. He’ll be connected or it’ll just be goofy.
Watch nothing. Snoke doesn’t say a single thing about Vader in the the film. He does, however, mentioned him once in the novelization. He tells Kylo Ren, “Had Lord Vader not succumbed to emotion at the crucial moment—had the father killed the son—the Empire would have prevailed.” And that’s pretty much it. So how is it doubtful that he learned about Vader’s final moments from Kylo Ren? Please explain.
It’s right there in the sentence you sent….
It’s all assumption based on novel and movie. But Snoky alludes that he’s always been there and for him to just show up and take over an existing empire makes no sense.
The empire turned to someone who already had a powerful presence.
Maybe Ben did tell him. Maybe he didn’t. I personally don’t believe Luke told anyone besides leia and hang, in order to help protect Anakins name and his family.
“…alludes that he’s always been there and for him to just show up and take over an existing empire makes no sense.”
In the novel, Snoke tells Kylo Ren that he watched the Empire rise and fall. That can mean a lot of things. That doesn’t have to mean that he was Palpatine’s master, cousin, or college roommate. Nor does it mean that he had to be the one who created Anakin or any of that other nonsense. Galaxies are very, very large places and there is plenty of room for powerful and mysterious entities to emerge. And remember that The Force Awakens takes place 30 years after ROTJ. Maybe he didn’t, “just show up”. Perhaps, years ago, the Imperial remnant stumbled across this being and fell within his grasp.
Or maybe hang told him.
Lol…love it, palps cousin! You just killed me, that’s awesome. Can’t stop laughing. I’ll be using that for years.
You may be right. I may not agree, but you could be correct!
And who’s hang?
Read your earlier post.
Personally I’m hoping as a new character Snoke isn’t Darth Plaguies, after all Sideous didn’t actually say who his master was.
I don’t require a massive background detailed in the movies, but what it does require is a line or two akin to Obi-wan telling Luke about his father and the Clone Wars. I’m sure this will be the case between Luke and Rey in Episode 8.
Leia mentioned Snoke briefly in TFA, an extra line would of been nice by her, but obvious time restraints and such to fit so much in.
I get you. I’d actually be pretty surprised if we don’t get more of a backstory to Snoke in either 8 or 9. I think he was handled perfectly in 7. He was revealed, but left a near total mystery.
I don’t want Snoke to be Plaguies either. I want him to be…well…Snoke. What exactly that means, I’m looking forward to finding out.
I’m a fan that always wants more 🙂 However in many respects you are correct, by not having one or two more lines on Snoke it leaves fans looking forward to the next instalment.
lol, that’s so silly. He doesn’t need to tie in at all.
If they want the story to be a continuation ….which it’s supposed to be, then yes, he must.
If not, then they should have done a story several years removed without any of the original characters.
Hey guess what: The story is a continuation no matter what Snoke is because it continues the story of several characters from the OT, most notable the Skywalker family.
Snoke is a new threat for new movies. Boring tie-ins are boring.
More like a lame threat thus far.
Destroyed the Republic and the Jedi…very lame.
Lame story and character. Too many flaws to count.
And yet none listed. Most of them seem to be “He isn’t Darth Plagueis” which…yawn.
No, I just really don’t feel like getting all into the reasons….I did so much of it last year, that I burned myself out on pointing out every issue with this movie.
I will point out…this entire movie threw away all of the story arcs and myths created in the previous six.
Rule of 2…palps would’ve sensed this clown and destroyed him.
His intimate knowledge of Vader turning….if he’s just some random baddie…huge plot hole.
A dark sider sending a half trained apprentice out to command and show his very weak emotions????
He builds another death star??? Horrible.
haha, sure. No, it didn’t: it started NEW story arcs.
The Sith are dead. A new threat rises. That’s what a sequel does.
New story arcs are fine, if they don’t destroy the entire point of the first 6.
A new threat! Same old red light sabers and a evil skywalker…haha. and spoke using empire remnants and talking all about Valders past.
Sure doesn’t sound like a new threat.
They don’t destroy the point of the first 6 in any way.
Plagueis wouldn’t be a new threat either.
Absolutely they do. I never proposed it be him.
Watto voice: “No, they don’t.”
That alone shows how bad this movie was….
That alone shows nothing hahaha. That doesn’t make a bit of sense. You just don’t like it.
You’re right, I don’t. But I’d have to devote an entire book for all those reasons.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9565c7f8dbb43f2d3afad7d66367874c1f3a01b57025828c75a4a388757536e.jpg
Maybe they’re just pulling a practical snoke on us.
Slow clap.
I heard Snoke is actually pronounced “shmuck” , can anyone confirm this?
I’m noting how the SW universe is suddenly including Chinese and looking Game of Thronesish
When I think of using puppets like this, I think of the awfulness of Nute Gunray and the rest of the Nemotoadians. It was like watching a bad Japanese overdub, as the voice never matches to the lips. On creatures that do not resemble humans, such as Yoda, the mis-matched facial expressions can be overlooked as part of the habit of the particular species. But on a humanoid, I suppose the we are so used to seeing the human face that anything that is “off” shouts out that something is wrong. If they can’t make the facial expressions believable, then they should make Snoke CGI capture or human in heavy makeup. Ridley found an actor tall enough for the Alien, i’m sure a tall enough actor could be found for Snoke.
Snoke probably doesn’t make an appearance in Vlll.
He had four scenes in the first film, after all..
This might prove the most probable rumor. He is just a guy named Snoke.
Plagueis confirmed
??