Andy Serkis says playing Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was "a massive challenge" because the humanoid was "evolving as we were going along"

Andy Serkis says Gollum was a piece of cake compared to Supreme Leader Snoke, whose backstory is still a perplexing mystery to most fans.

"Snoke is the one character that was a massive challenge, because he was evolving, in terms of writing, as we were going along," Serkis said on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast. "It was still unclear where he was at, what he actually represented in [The Force Awakens].”

Snoke was introduced in The Force Awakens as a Supreme Leader on the dark side of the Force. He was subsequently killed off in The Last Jedi. And then we learned in The Rise of Skywalker that dude was actually a strandcast created by Emperor Palpatine. Star Wars fans are still debating whether or not Snoke even knew he was a clone, or even served Palpatine at all.

Serkis's comments make perfect sense given that Last Jedi director Rian Johnson didn't know much about Snoke going into the film, and still didn't know anything after completing the film.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ in 2018, Johnson said: "I guess I always assume at some point he’ll be explained in some other materials at some place, but because it didn’t really concern our story, I never really went into it." And all these years later... I guess we'll never know.

Next up for Star Wars is The Mandalorian and Grogu, which hits theaters on May 22. the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows for everything else that's on the way.