Star Wars: Mark Hamill "Surprised" By People Upset With Snoke's 'The Last Jedi' Fate

Many fans loved writer/director Rian Johnson's approach to the Star Wars saga with The Last Jedi, [...]

Many fans loved writer/director Rian Johnson's approach to the Star Wars saga with The Last Jedi, though that hasn't stopped a vocal minority from angrily criticizing it for the last few months for a variety of reasons. One point that some fans seem to harp on is Supreme Leader Snoke's death at the hands of Kylo Ren, as they had spent the past two years trying to conjure up a backstory for the character that Johnson proved was ultimately a waste of time. Even star Mark Hamill doesn't understand why fans are upset, as he knew the "Supreme Leader" was irrelevant in the story the saga was telling.

"I relate to the fans because I'm a fan myself," Hamill shared with Games Radar. "I understand that they have a deep investment, a sense of ownership, because I do too and the problem is, you just can't please everyone… I was surprised everyone was so upset that they got rid of Snoke. From Rian's point of view, it was a big favorite for [Episode IX] because he's not important. It clears the deck to have the conflict between Kylo and Rey without him getting in the way and having to explain if he's a clone or if he's related to Palpatine – all that stuff."

When Snoke debuted in The Force Awakens, all fans knew of his character was that he was powerful enough to give orders to both General Hux and Kylo Ren, placing him as both a powerful political leader and member of the Dark Side. The character earned barely any screentime, making fans think we'd learn more about him in The Last Jedi.

Despite the small subset of fans expressing their displeasure at being denied a backstory for the character, Johnson wouldn't have done anything differently were he given a second chance.

"A lot of things that ended up taking hold in the fan community in terms of who is Snoke, who are Rey's parents, and the fever pitch that those rose to, I obviously knew those were questions you had coming out of Force Awakens, but I didn't have the weight of the fan expectation of what the payoff of those questions would be," Johnson shared with SlashFilm. "Which I think was a good thing."

This meant that Johnson could fulfill his creative desires with Snoke as opposed to force some connection the character could have had to previous films just to appease fans.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, the timing of it was, it's not like I was aware of those expectations and was purposefully trying to poke people in the eye," Johnson added, "I was writing to my honest gut reactions to what the most powerful turn of events would be to those questions."

The Last Jedi is available now on Blu-ray and DVD.

Were you also surprised by audiences upset with Snoke's fate? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

[H/T Games Radar]

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