Andy Serkis will play a motion-capture character known as Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it has been revealed.
Rumours have been circling ever since Serkis was unveiled as a member of the cast of JJ Abrams’ film in April last year. Now StarWars.com has revealed that, whoever he is, Snoke is clearly a very powerful figure. That ostentatious title certainly sounds more like it belongs to the dark side than the light, so perhaps Snoke is head of the evil First Order, expected to be the replacement for Darth Vader’s Empire in the new episode.
StarWars.com also presents an image of Serkis decked out in mo-cap gear, but there’s no hint so far of what Snoke will look like when he’s presented in all his CGI glory. Smart money is on the British actor portraying some kind of alien, given the requirement for a motion-captured performance.
The character has been heard, however, on the first trailer for The Force Awakens which debuted in November 2014. Serkis confirmed in December that he voiced the key line: “The dark side, and the light”.
Abrams’ film, due in cinemas this December, is the bookmakers’ runaway favourite to be the year’s highest-grossing film. It will feature the return of Star Wars cast members Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo), alongside newcomers John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Max von Sydow, Domhnall Gleeson and Serkis. The film is expected to kick off a new trilogy, set to climax in 2019, while studio Disney is also releasing Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One in December 2016, as part of its plans for a series of spin-off titles.
Serkis is known as something of a mo-cap specialist, having portrayed Gollum and King Kong for Peter Jackson, as well as the simian leader Caesar in the rebooted Planet of the Apes movies. In 2011, he co-founded the London-based motion capture studio The Imaginarium to advance the art of the “cyber-thespian” and provide content for major Hollywood movies such as Serkis’s own upcoming directorial debut, The Jungle Book: Origins.
