Star Wars prequel quietly solves Snoke mystery that's bugged us for years

Supreme Leader Snoke is easily one of the Star Wars universe’s most elusive figures.

There’s plenty about the character that isn’t made abundantly clear in the sequel trilogy, although answers do exist in the wider Star Wars canon if you know where to look.

For example, what exactly is Snoke?

He’s somewhat humanoid in his appearance, but I place the emphasis on somewhat.

Snoke is a fair bit taller than your average human and boasts - and there’s no way to say this without someone going wahey - a pretty large head.

His skin is scarred, so clearly either he’s been through the ringer or he’s actually something a tad more other-wordly.

The truth is that Snoke is a clone of Palpatine, so assumedly the cloning process didn’t go too smoothly as he’s clearly not a like-for-like copy.

In The Rise of Skywalker, we meet Palpatine’s successful clone given that he looks exactly like the Palpatine we knew in the prequel trilogy.

Snoke was therefore more of a ‘failed’ first attempt.

ICYMI: We sat down to chat with the cast of The Acolyte earlier this year.

Snoke was cloned using an adaptation of the Kaminoan technology used in the prequel trilogy to create the Clone Troopers.

When we meet Snoke, he’s not actually a host of Palpatine’s spirit.

You see, Palpatine had to create a worthy host before he could then tap into the Dark Side of the force to transfer his essence in.

When Snoke was deemed unworthy of that honour, he was purportedly sent out simply as a minion of Palpatine - a face to do his bidding.

Given that Snoke was an attempted clone of Palpatine, this explains why he possesses the ability to use the force.

But the force - and those pesky midi-chlorians - is a fickle thing, perhaps explaining why, as an early attempt, Snoke ended up with certain deformities.

As reported by Screen Rant, the comic book Star Wars: The Rose of Kylo Ren also confirms that the major gash on his head is a lightsaber wound after Snoke was sent to manipulate the young Ben Solo, later Kylo Ren.

Of course, there’s been much debate over the years as to whether this was always the plan for Snoke or whether JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson’s varying visions resulted in a podged together explanation.

Either way, this is what we’re left with.