'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': Details about Andy Serkis' character Revealed

He's played Gollum, King Kong and the ape that caused the Planet of the Apes -; and now Andy Serkis has been revealed to be the man in charge of... something in this year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

StarWars.com has revealed that Serkis' character in the new movie will be called Supreme Leader Snoke, and that the performance will be motion-captured, premiering a new photograph from Annie Liebovitz of the actor taken during production for Vanity Fair.

Quite what Snoke is the Supreme Leader of is officially unrevealed, but it seems likely that he's the man behind the First Order, the Force Awakens' replacement for the Galactic Empire of the franchise's original trilogy. Whether this makes him the new Emperor, or perhaps the next Darth Vader, remains to be seen, however.

Although Serkis' character has remained unnamed to this point -; and is still unseen, unless audiences have had a glimpse in one of the trailers without knowing it -; he has been heard; Serkis provided the narration to the movie's first teaser trailer, released last November. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, he teased that although he couldn't say much about the character, "he's been through some stuff."

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released Dec. 18.

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