Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Snoke’s identity has been one of the biggest topics of Star Wars speculation in the two years since The Force Awakens, and with Andy Serkis’ mo-cap villain not getting much fleshing out in The Last Jedi, theorizing is only set to increase. But has the truth been staring us the in the face all along: is Snoke the first Jedi?

Episode VIII‘s marketing smartly and carefully kept the focus off of the First Order’s Supreme Leader. The title turned everyone’s attention to the Luke-Rey dynamic, while the official trailer shifted that to be more about the potential for alliance (or, at the very least, bridging of the Force divide) between Rey and Kylo Ren. The absence alone led to intense speculation, although we now know it was something else: Snoke’s a red herring, killed by Kylo Ren out of nowhere in a move that allows Ben Solo to truly embrace his dark future.

This may lead some to think we’ll never find out what was really going on with the late Supreme Leader. However, before that lightsaber twist-and-ignite shocker, we may have got all the evidence we need to crack the case of who he is. And it’s a big deal. We’ve been focused on the Last Jedi and the new generation so much we’ve never considered how the film is also looking into origins: the past of the Ben Solo and Rey, but also the Jedi Order itself.

WHAT WE ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT SNOKE

Before we get into the First Jedi theory, it’s important to outline what we actually know about Snoke. In a word, little.

In The Force Awakens, we were introduced to the scarred, wrinkled giant (massive as a hologram, 9 foot in person) and learned a few careful details. He’s the mysterious leader of the First Order. He doesn’t want Luke back in the fight. He turned Ben Solo to the dark side (and later made him kill Han). He has a flair for the theatrical. Since then, a few more details have emerged: he’s seeking revenge; he’s not a Sith, yet is still more powerful in the Force than Darths Sidious and Vader.

The Last Jedi offered little more overtly. We got clarification he’s powerful enough to create a psychic bond between Rey and Kylo and wants the scavenger to serve as a final test for his apprentice, but otherwise we’re still left with more an idea of what he isn’t: he’s not Ezra Bridger; he’s not Darth Plagueis (but we’ll coming back to him); and he’s definitely not Jar Jar.

With all that stated, it’s easy to see why there have been so many theories. And thanks to new evidence, we have the ultimate one.

IS SNOKE THE FIRST JEDI?

The main lesson of the first Jedi Temple on Ahch-to where Luke Skywalker has exiled himself to is that the dogma of the religion is what’s held back generations and powered the once farm boy’s removal from the Force. We don’t learn anything about its origins, nor what’s in those sacred texts, ostensibly because it’s not important.

There’s more to Ahch-to that just that, though. In the cave by the cliffside outcrop, there’s a mosaic in the floor showing a meditating figure. We see this several times, with the camera making sure it’s in proper focus at least once. From the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary, we get a clearer image of the design and learn this is described by the Caretakers who care for the island as “an image of the Prime Jedi, the first of the Order, in a state of meditation and balance“. We can easily now see that this is a Star Wars version of the yin-yang symbol (something that has appeared before in Attack of the Clones as a cloud formation in the middle of Anakin’s turn) with the Prime Jedi in front. It’s in a typical cross-legged meditative position, but what’s of interest is the shape of his head: it’s the same engorged, grey alien outline as Snoke’s.

That’s a detail we can’t ignore, especially as the shape is what the aforementioned lingering shot really takes in. Could that be a mural of the Supreme Leader from millennia ago?

THE FIRST JEDI EVIDENCE

So, let’s apply what know of Snoke to the theory. He’s older than the events of the original trilogy and quite possibly came into the fight from the Unknown Regions, so that lines up; this means he’s not a Sith yet can still be of immense power. Conversely, it fits with what how we have little on the Jedi origins; while there’s a rather thorough outline of how the Sith came to be, the canon creation of the Jedi – and specifically the actions of the creator – are shrouded in mystery. From The Last Jedi, clearly this wasn’t a creative choice to hide anything major in Luke’s arc, so the lack of anything tangible in contrast to the Sith definitely adds fuel. It’s also worth noting that Luke never read the texts so doesn’t know exactly how the Jedi came to be. If he had, maybe he’d have found the truth; it just wasn’t important for his arc.

But the illusion of proof in the absence of counterevidence is why there are so many Snoke theories. There’s more to this one. Elsewhere in the Dictionary, it’s highlight that “Snoke disguises his true nature“. This could mean he simply favors giant holograms rather than face-to-face meetings, but given his clearly laborious past, it would seem to nod towards him having something counterintuitive to hide.

There is the question of why the First Jedi wouldn’t know of the First Jedi Temple, although we don’t actually have any suggestion Snoke knows where Luke is. After all, the only statement of the Temple in The Force Awakens was by Han: “People who knew him best think he went looking for the first Jedi Temple.” Hardly the sort of thing Snoke would know. And when he does find out from mind-reading Rey, he calls Luke “wise”, infering he does know of the Temple on Ahch-to.

Another side possibility is that the mosaic isn’t of Snoke, but one of his species, with him one of the early padawans. This functions roundabout the same in practice, although him being the First Jedi is of particular potency.

WHY THE THEORY WORKS

Straight up, The Last Jedi dealt with one of the major question marks over Snoke: how can you have a big bad completely disconnected from the previous films? That was always an underlying issue in justifying the prequel trilogy and is why the Darth Plagueis theory caught on – it meant the Sith line continued, the prophecy was unfulfilled, and more seismically, he was basically Kylo Ren’s great-grandfather (it’s alluded Plageuis and Palpatine’s experiments with midichlorians led to Anakin’s immaculate conception).

The First Jedi theory, of course, ticks many of those boxes, but Episode VIII went the other way and revealed that Snoke wasn’t important at all: he was just a means to Kylo’s end. However, him being the order’s founder still has some strong thematic weight. The Last Jedi is all about moving beyond – in some cases literally, in some symbolically an obsession with the past or future, and on a meta level the franchise evolving (seen best in the very different ending). For Snoke to be the First Jedi is a literalisation of that: we have the grounding of the Order Luke discovers has held him and galaxy back truly ended in a manner that allows the franchise to move into the future.

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It’s become customary to respond to Snoke theories with the phrase “your Snoke theory sucks“. Whether we ever learn the truth of the Supreme Leader (in Episode IX or elsewhere in the canon), one thing is certain: this one definitely does not.