A new Star Wars novel with the unwieldy title Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt has offered up the best candidate yet for the true identity of Supreme Leader Snoke — the Sith-y big bad and First Order head honcho introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Chuck Wendig’s first Star Wars novel, the single-colon Star Wars: Aftermath , introduced a sinister figure known as “The Operator.” In Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt The Operator is revealed to be Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax,the secret power behind the mysterious Shadow Council that eventually evolves into the First Order. Rax is joined on the Shadow Council by a bunch of other chuds, including General Hux’s father, Brendol Hux (General Hux, that redhead adversary to Kylo Ren, is revealed to have the first name Armitage).
So does Gallius Rax become Supreme Leader Snoke? Let’s look at the evidence from Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt:
- Rax’s species and appearance remains an open question throughout Life Debt .
- Rax rescues Armitage Hux from the Imperial Academy on Arkanis and seems to have an obsession with nurturing young talent. This fits quite nicely with Snoke’s pseudo-parent relationship with Hux and Kylo Ren.
- The Emperor’s Super Star Destroyer, Eclipse, is missing. Who better to disappear a flagship than the Fleet Admiral?
- Life Debt ’s epilogue reveals that Rax pledged his loyalty to Emperor Palpatine on Jakku, where the Emperor told him a bunch of secrets about how important Jakku would become.
There’s enough evidence here to conclude that Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt wants us to think Rax could be Supreme Leader Snoke. Of course, it could be a red herring, designed to obscure Snoke’s true identity. It’s also possible Snoke has no secret identity at all. Maybe he’s just some bro named Snoke, you know?
The wealth of evidence connecting Gallius Rax and Supreme Leader Snoke seems a little too straightforward to be true. And would Star Wars really blow such a big reveal in a tie-in novel?
So is Rax actually Snoke? Not likely. But he’s definitely our best candidate yet. We’ll know more when Star Wars: Episode 8 comes out Dec. 15, 2017.
