Supreme Leader Snoke

"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The droid we seek is aboard the Millenium Falcon in the hands of your father, Han Solo. Even you, Master of the Knights of Ren, have never faced such a task."

- Snoke to Kylo Ren.

Supreme Leader Snoke is the main antagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and he will likely be the main antagonist of Star Wars Episode IX.

Snoke is the founder of both the First Order and Knights of Ren and is also the master of Kylo Ren and General Hux, as well as a powerful entity of the Dark Side of the Force.

He is portrayed and voiced by Andy Serkis, who also portrays Gollum, Mr. Grin and Capricorn.

Star Wars Episode Vll: The Force Awakens
After the escape of Poe Dameron by help of the deserting stormtrooper Finn, General Hux and Kylo Ren are called before Snoke. Snoke tells them that if the droid BB-8, whom Dameron gave the map leading to Luke Skywalker, brings the map to the Resistance a new Jedi Order will rise. Hux claims full responsibility for the failure and tells Snoke that Starkiller Base is ready to be used against the Republic. Snoke orders Hux to oversee the preparations and dismisses him. After the general has left, Snoke exclaims that there has been an awakening and asks Ren whether he felt it too. He then tells Ren that the droid they are searching is in the hands of Ren's father, Han Solo. Ren tells Snoke that Han means nothing to him but Snoke responds that despite his training, Ren has never faced such a task before. His hologram then fades away, leaving Ren alone in the room.

After Ren has captured Rey, but is unable to read her mind, as she herself is strong with the Force, he reports to Snoke who can not believe that the scavenger girl bested his apprentice. When Snoke asks of news of the droid, Hux tells him that because he had the girl in his hands, Kylo deemed the droid irrelevant and stopped the search for him. To prevent the Resistance from finding Luke Skywalker, Snoke tells Hux to prepare the base's weapon to destroy the home planet of the Resistance. Snoke then tells Ren to bring Rey to him, but she has already escaped her prison cell.

After Han Solo calls out to Kylo Ren (by his name Ben) to come home and depart Snoke, his son asserts that Snoke is wise while Han claims that Snoke will crush Ben once he gets what he wants. It is unspecified what Snoke wants, it could be obedience from all over the galaxy or Luke Skywalker's location, if not both. It is also unknown whether Kylo Ren believed Han's warning that Snoke will crush him and that Kylo Ren secretly made plans to kill Snoke later on to prevent that from happening. Nonetheless, Han's lecture to him about Snoke did not change his relation with his son, and his son executed him anyways.

When it becomes imminent that Starkiller Base has reached a critical condition and will be destroyed under the attack of the Resistance, Snoke calls General Hux to him and orders him to evacuate the base as well as to bring Kylo Ren to him, promising he will complete Ren's training.

Personality
"No; it was Snoke. He seduced our son to the dark side."

- Leia Organa to Han Solo about their son's turning to the dark side by Snoke

Snoke is intelligent, calculating, reserved and wise. However, he is also very manipulative, as he exploited Force-sensitive individuals, such as Ben Solo, only for their power.

Snoke displays tendencies unusual for practitioners of the Dark side of the Force; he shows little emotion, as he is usually very calm and collected, and didn't appear to be in any form of worry or distress despite the circumstances against him and the First Order. When the Starkiller Base was being destroyed, he calmly expressed his wishes without showing any form of anger or annoyance, a stark contrast to his apprentice Kylo Ren, who is prone to violent outbursts when faced with frustration. Despite this, however, Snoke did demonstrate a considerable level of anger and frustration after learning of failures from Hux and Kylo.

His reason for choosing Ben Solo as his apprentice (as explained in the novelization of The Force Awakens) is that as Anakin Skywalker's grandson, he is a focal point in the Force; a perfect balance of light and dark.

For mostly unknown reasons, Snoke has a dislike for Luke Skywalker. However, in the film's novelization, Snoke is shown to believe that Darth Vader's compassion, sentiment and love for his son, Luke, was the reason for the fall of the Galactic Empire. He also passed on that belief to Kylo during the the latter's apprenticeship.

Description
Snoke is a male individual who served as Kylo Ren's master approximately thirty years after the Battle of Endor and a very powerful practitioner of the dark side of the Force.

He appears as a very thin and frail being with large hands. His hologram used on the Starkiller Base projected him several times larger (around 25–30 feet) than his natural appearance, towering over Kylo Ren and General Hux similar to the Emperor making his true height up to 7–8 feet, as Andy Serkis said.

Snoke had an elongated face with pale, scarred skin and dark black eyes. He sported a large scar from the top of his head, all the way down to his brow. Snoke also has a scar or burn on his right cheek. Snoke wore a simple cloak similar to those worn by Sith Lords. Snoke tended to speak slowly and enunciate his desires with a forceful undertone.

Powers

 * The Force: None of Snoke's powers are actually shown yet. However, it can be assumed that he is extremely powerful and has an extremely strong connection to the Force.

Abilities

 * Lightsaber Skills: None of Snoke's skills are actually shown yet. However, it can be assumed that he is extremely skilled in lightsaber combat and an extremely gifted duelist.
 * High-Level Intellect/Master Tactician/Leader/Manipulator: Snoke is highly intelligent. As the leader of the First Order and the Knights of Ren, Snoke is a highly skilled tactician and a capable leader. Snoke's skill in manipulation is so strong that Snoke even managed to manipulate and deceive Ben Solo into becoming his apprentice and turning him against the New Jedi Order.

Trivia

 * Many Star Wars fans have theorized that Snoke may actually be a deceased Star Wars character reincarnated, with Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine and even Mace Windu being the most prime suspects. Many fans also theorize that Snoke is in truth Darth Plagueis, who used his deep knowledge of the force to survive somehow, though it was said he was turned to ashes and placed into the two Sith urns in front of Palpatine's office. Some fans even speculated that Snoke is really Jar-Jar Binks in a Reddit theory, though this generally isn't considered a serious possibility. However, one MoviePilot theory proposed that Plagueis, Snoke, and Binks were all the same being all along, and that Plagueis had disguised himself as a Gungan using "Force projection" before later taking up the role of Snoke. However, this has all been unverified, as Andy Serkis recently stated that Snoke is "just Snoke".
 * His actor's Lord of the Rings co-star Christopher Lee played Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
 * His appearance was created using motion capture (CGI).
 * His name was officially unveiled on May 28, 2015.
 * Snoke's face is similar to the face of Mason Verger.
 * Snoke's look is very similar to the look of the Dementors in the Harry Potter franchise.
 * Snoke is similar to Lord Voldemort, the overall primary villain of the Harry Potter franchise: They are bald and ancient, they are leaders of a villainous cult, and they even serve as a father figure to one of their minions (Snoke: Kylo Ren, Voldemort: Barty Crouch Jr).
 * Snoke's speech pattern and voice are very similar to The Architect from The Matrix Reloaded.