Rian Johnson Breaks Down Snoke’s Shocking Death in The Last Jedi

When The Last Jedi hit theaters, one of the biggest shocks wasn’t a plot twist or a lightsaber duel, it was Supreme Leader Snoke being cut in half. Just like that, the mysterious villain set up in The Force Awakens was gone. For a lot of fans, it was a bold and confusing move. But for director Rian Johnson, it was a key part of the story he wanted to tell.

Speaking with The Rolling Stone, Johnson explained his thinking. “To me, I didn’t easily dispense with Snoke. I took great pains to use him in the most dramatically impactful way I could,” he said. “That was to take Kylo’s character to the next level and set him up as well as I possibly could.”

Snoke, created by J.J. Abrams in The Force Awakens, was clearly meant to be the big bad guy of the sequel trilogy. His appearance, his powers, and the mystery around his identity made him feel like a new version of Emperor Palpatine. But Johnson saw Snoke differently. Rather than drag his story out or give him a detailed origin, Johnson used his death as a way to shift the focus to Kylo Ren.

“This is such a compelling and complicated villain,” Johnson said of Kylo. “This is who it makes sense going forward to build around.”

That decision wasn’t about ignoring what came before. Johnson said he had plenty of conversations with Abrams during the early stages of The Last Jedi. They spent days together, going over ideas and discussing characters. But once Johnson got to work, it became his story.

“None of the choices were made to undo anything,” he said. “It was the opposite — how do I take this story and these characters I love, and move them forward?”

Johnson also pointed out that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy gave him a very clear job: to make the Empire Strikes Back of the new trilogy. But to Johnson, that didn’t just mean copying the tone or structure of Empire. It meant pushing the story in a bold direction.

Snoke’s death wasn’t just for shock value. Johnson used it to create one of the film’s most memorable scenes: the throne room fight. Kylo Ren and Rey teaming up against Snoke’s guards was intense, emotional, and visually stunning. It also showed just how unstable Kylo was, not a redeemed hero, but a villain stepping into power.

When The Rise of Skywalker came out, some fans thought it tried to “fix” parts of The Last Jedi. For example, it brought back Palpatine as the real villain, made Rey a Palpatine instead of a nobody, and even included a line about how the Holdo Maneuver (another bold Johnson idea) was a one-in-a-million fluke.

But Johnson didn’t take it personally. “I never approach this like a territory I’m carving out for myself,” he said. “From my perspective, J.J. did the same thing I did. He told the story he felt was most compelling.”

Johnson also said he enjoyed watching Rise of Skywalker, even if it made different choices. “You’re talking about a movie made by my friends, with my friends in it,” he said. “It’s a Star Wars movie. It’s all stuff I love.”

As for the fan backlash to The Last Jedi, Johnson admits it was tough to deal with online hate. But he’s also realistic about it.

“I was in college when the prequels came out. My friends and I were Prequel Hate Central,” he said. “And now the prequels are embraced. This push and pull — it’s all part of being a Star Wars fan.”

There were plans at one point for Johnson to develop his own Star Wars trilogy. But nothing ever came of it. He started working on Knives Out, which took off and became its own hit series. “If there’s ever an opportunity to come back to Star Wars, I’d be thrilled,” he said. “But for now, I’m just doing my own thing.”

Rian Johnson’s take on Snoke wasn’t about disrespecting Star Wars. It was about telling a story that moved forward. Snoke may not have had a long run, but his death changed everything, and that was exactly the point.

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