Does New Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Clip Confirm a Major Snoke Theory?

With one week until the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm has begun to peel back the veil of secrecy surrounding the final film in the saga. And while trailers and TV spots have teased fans about what to expect with the movie, we still don’t know what the plot of the film will consist of beyond the inevitable battle between the Resistance and the First Order. But now Lucasfilm has unveiled a spoiler-filled clip from the movie which teases major implications for Kylo Ren‘s connection to Emperor Palpatine.

Warning: Minor spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker below.

In the clip that you can watch above, Kylo Ren is seen traveling to what appears to be a temple and is chastised by the fluctuating voice of the Emperor. He changes his voice to sound like Darth Vader, but he also channels the departed Supreme Leader Snoke.

Snoke’s connection to the Force and to Kylo Ren has been debated for years since the character’s debut in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But after he was unceremoniously killed off in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, fans assumed that we would never learn about the mysterious character’s role in the galaxy.

It appears that Snoke has a major connection to the Emperor, as Palpatine himself boasts that every thing Kylo Ren has heard in his mind has been because of Palpatine’s machinations. What this means is unclear since we only have the context of this short clip, but is the Emperor admitting that he had a direct influence on Snoke’s relationship with Kylo Ren? Or that he directly created the Supreme Leader to act as his proxy?

Some fans have theorized that Supreme Leader Snoke was actually a Force projection of the Emperor, much like Luke Skywalker did to himself in the battle on Crait. But Snoke was directly killed by Kylo Ren’s actions, meaning that this premise is either false or that Palpatine’s powers of projection are much stronger.

Hopefully we get some answers about Supreme Leader Snoke in the next movie, because there are still a lot of questions surrounding his rise to power and his abilities with the Force. The character’s unexpected death was one of the more controversial storylines in The Last Jedi, but having Palpatine shed some light will likely please audiences.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres in theaters on Friday, December 20th.