"[4] Manzella later revealed that, influenced by a reference by Abrams to Hammer House of Horror, he partially based a maquette of Snoke on Peter Cushing, who portrayed Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars film.

"[10] In May 2015, a StarWars.com interview with photographer Annie Leibovitz about her The Force Awakens shoot for Vanity Fair revealed that Serkis would be playing a CGI character named Supreme Leader Snoke,[11] and featured an image of the actor in motion capture gear.

[12] Serkis had previously played several CGI characters using motion capture technology, including the titular gorilla in 2005's King Kong, and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot series.

[15]Costume designer Michael Kaplan had the idea to give Snoke gold robes to contrast from his red and black throne room in The Last Jedi.

The conceptual designers of the set were inspired by unused concept art for Return of the Jedi depicting the Emperor's lava-based lair under the surface of Coruscant.

[20][21] Snoke, whom Abrams called "a powerful figure on the dark side of the Force", was introduced as the leader of the First Order[22] and master to the sequel trilogy's main villain, Kylo Ren.

[3][26][27] Robbie Collin of The Telegraph described the disfigured and skeletal Snoke as a "sepulchral horror",[28] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called him "hissing and grotesque",[29] and Andrew O'Hehir of Salon dubbed the character "a spectral demonic figure".

[30] Variety's Justin Chang wrote that Snoke resembled "a plus-sized, more articulate version of his character Gollum",[31] and Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly described him as "essentially Emperor Palpatine crossed with one of the aliens from Close Encounters.

"[32] Stephanie Zacharek of Time called the character "a giant, scary, noseless dude who sits placidly in an oversized chair like a dark-lord version of the Lincoln Monument.

Such theories included that he was Darth Plagueis, a Sith Lord anecdotally mentioned in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and the mentor of Palpatine, allegedly possessing the power to prevent death;[33][34][35] Palpatine himself,[36] "the Operator" Gallius Rax, a mysterious First Order manipulator from Chuck Wendig's Aftermath novel trilogy;[37] or Ezra Bridger, a main character from the animated series Star Wars Rebels.

Snoke senses an "awakening" in the Force, and warns Ren that the limits of his power will be tested when he faces his father in pursuit of the wayward droid BB-8, which carries a map to the missing Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

[44] In The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren finds several clones resembling Snoke at Emperor Palpatine's (Ian McDiarmid) lair on the Sith world Exegol.

[46] In the novel, Leia tells Han in more detail how Snoke, aware that their son would be "strong with the Force" and possess "equal potential for good or evil", had long watched Ben and manipulated events to draw him to the dark side.

In the spring of 2018, Snoke was added to the mobile MOBA Star Wars: Force Arena as a playable Dark Side squad leader.

[2] General Pryde (Richard E. Grant), a supporting villain in The Rise of Skywalker, was one of the few characters who knew Snoke was subservient to a higher power.

[51] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Supreme Leader Snoke is a larger-than-life, vaguely Harry Potter-ish hologram voiced with deep gravity by Andy Serkis; the full weight of this character's malignancy and dramatic power will presumably be better assessed in subsequent episodes.

[29] Though praising the "unobtrusive sophistication" of the visual effects used to portray the character, Variety's Justin Chang said that Serkis is "fine but not galvanizing" in the role.

Serkis acknowledged that some fans found the lack of backstory "incredibly frustrating", but suggested this as an opportunity to layer Snoke in a future story.

Despite the criticisms towards the writing, Forbes praised Serkis' performance in both films, and was much more positive towards his appearance in The Last Jedi, highlighting his death and his relationship with his apprentice, Kylo Ren.