Meet Supreme Leader Snoke’s Elite Guards in STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Erin Lynch

EW has given us an official look at Snoke’s elite guardsmen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Known as the Praetorian Guard, these soldiers will be guarding the giant and enigmatic supreme leader. They are raring to go!

In their bright red appearance, Snoke was clearly inspired by the Emperor’s own Royal Guard, with one notably exception. While both are covered head to toe in red with a masked head, the Praetorian Guards are more mobile. The Royal Guard wore red cloaks, standing imposingly, even though, the Emperor didn’t really need them. Snoke seems to need these men more as they’re armor is clearly inspired by samurai. And in their photo, they seem more ready to fight than any of the Imperial Guard. Rian Johnson revealed his own thoughts on the two.

The Emperor’s guards were very formal, and you always got the sense that they could fight, but they didn’t. They looked like they were more ceremonial, and you never really saw them in action. The Praetorians, my brief to [costume designer] Michael Kaplan was that those guys have to be more like samurai. They have to be built to move, and you have to believe that they could step forward and engage if they have to. They have to seem dangerous.

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And putting on our speculation hats briefly, we saw both Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver training with multiple men with pike-like weapons. While many speculated The Knights of Ren, it may end up being these Praetorian Guards. Which may see a Rey and Kylo team up. Hats off! The name of the guard was inspired and taken by the real life Praetorian Guards who protected Roman Emperors. I dig it.

Since we’ll see the guards, we’ll be seeing the Supreme Leader himself in the flesh, it seems. But we won’t learn too much more about him. Johnson reminds us that we didn’t learn much about the Emperor outside of what Luke knew about him. He seems to be mimicking that in his film, as it’s not important to the plot to learn about him.

Similar to Rey’s parentage, Snoke is here to serve a function in the story. And a story is not a Wikipedia page. For example, in the original trilogy, we didn’t know anything about the Emperor except what Luke knew about him, that he’s the evil guy behind Vader. Then in the prequels, you knew everything about Palpatine because his rise to power was the story. We’ll learn exactly as much about Snoke as we need to.

While I’m okay with not learning much about him in the films, I do hope we can learn more in the other materials such as novels and visual dictionaries. He’s humanoid but not human, which is immediately interesting. The Emperor was a man, and you knew he was a man. But Snoke is different. Fans of Snoke will be, luckily, treated to more of the seemingly ancient being.

We will see more of him, and Andy Serkis will get to do much more in this film than he did in the last one. And that guy is just a force of nature. I’d be sitting at the monitor just with my eyes as big as dinner plates. It’s one of those performances where after every line, I’d look over at whoever’s standing next to me with an expression on my face like, ‘Oh, my God, we just got that.’

My body is ready for more Snoke. In addition to a brilliant performance out of Andy Serkis, we got one last answer regarding the First Order’s leader. Rumor had been circulating that Snoke would be partially CGI, partially puppet. Johnson cleared the air that Snoke will be fully CGI. 

What do you think of the guards and more info on Snoke? Let us know! Be sure to come back to Geek Girl Authority for more Star Wars news. The Last Jedi will be in theaters December 15th.

Erin Lynch

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