Is Snoke Really A Clone Of Palpatine?

Back when The Force Awakens came out, I was convinced Snoke was going to be the next big bad of Star Wars. He was this mysterious, powerful figure, and it felt like the story was setting up something huge.

But then The Rise of Skywalker dropped the Palpatine reveal, and suddenly, Snoke’s entire existence felt… weird. So, was he just a clone? Something else?

Snoke Was Engineered, Not Cloned

First off, Snoke wasn’t a clone in the way most people think of clones. He was a strandcast, which is basically a genetically engineered lifeform. Think of him as something artificially grown rather than a direct copy of Palpatine.

In The Mandalorian, Kuiil casually mentions strandcasts when talking about unnatural creations, which was Lucasfilm’s way of hinting at what Snoke really was. Then, The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary confirmed it: Snoke was a strandcast experiment, not an actual clone of Palpatine. His DNA was likely mixed with other sources, which is why he looked so different.

So, while Palpatine made him, Snoke wasn’t a one-to-one copy of the Emperor.

Snoke Was Supposed to Be a Host for Palpatine’s Spirit… But He Was a Failure

Palpatine didn’t create Snoke just for fun. He needed a strong body to transfer his consciousness into. His own clone bodies kept falling apart because his power in the dark side was too overwhelming. So, the Sith Eternal – the creepy cultists hanging out on Exegol – spent years experimenting with genetic material to create a body strong enough to contain Palpatine’s essence.

Snoke was one of those failed experiments. He was powerful in the Force, but his body wasn’t stable enough to hold Palpatine’s spirit. That’s probably why he looked so messed up. Instead of scrapping him completely, Palpatine decided to use him as a puppet to control the First Order from the shadows.

The Big Problem – Cloning Force-Sensitive Beings Is Extremely Hard

One thing Star Wars has made clear – both in Legends and Canon – is that cloning Force-sensitive people is ridiculously difficult. It’s not just about making a physical copy. There’s something about the Force that doesn’t transfer well into cloned bodies.

In Dark Empire (Legends), Palpatine kept making clones of himself, but they kept decaying too fast. In The Mandalorian, Moff Gideon and Dr. Pershing were desperately trying to extract Force-sensitive DNA, probably because they ran into the same problem.

That’s why Snoke was so rare – he was one of the few genetically engineered beings who actually had Force powers. But even then, his body was still flawed.

Was Luke’s Hand Used to Make Snoke? (A Crazy But Plausible Theory)

Now, here’s where things get interesting. In Darth Vader (2020) #11, Luke’s severed hand from The Empire Strikes Back is shown stored in a cloning facility on Exegol. That immediately raised a question:

Did Palpatine use Luke’s DNA to help create Snoke?

It would explain why Snoke had such a weird obsession with Luke Skywalker and why he seemed so invested in training Ben Solo. It’s not confirmed, but it wouldn’t be the craziest thing Star Wars has done.

Snoke’s Story Changed Because the Sequels Had No Plan

One of the biggest reasons Snoke’s backstory is all over the place? The sequel trilogy had no clear direction for him.

In The Force Awakens, he was built up as some ancient, powerful dark side user. Then The Last Jedi just… killed him off, without any explanation of who he was. And when The Rise of Skywalker had to wrap things up, they threw in the Palpatine reveal at the last minute.

So instead of Snoke being his own big villain, he ended up being a placeholder until Palpatine could show up again. If they had planned things out from the start, he probably would’ve had a much stronger story.

Why Snoke Wasn’t Darth Plagueis (Even Though He Should’ve Been)

A lot of people expected Snoke to be Darth Plagueis, Palpatine’s legendary Sith Master. I mean, it would’ve made a ton of sense – Plagueis was obsessed with cheating death and creating life artificially. Snoke being a resurrected or altered version of him would’ve tied the prequels and sequels together perfectly.

But Lucasfilm just… didn’t go that route. They made Snoke an entirely new character, even though his backstory ended up being way less interesting than what fans had speculated.

So, Was Snoke a Clone of Palpatine?

No, Snoke wasn’t a direct clone of Palpatine. But he was artificially created by him, genetically engineered in a Sith lab, and ultimately just a pawn in Palpatine’s grand plan.

He was never meant to be his own person – he was a failed experiment that Palpatine repurposed to lead the First Order and manipulate Kylo Ren.

It’s frustrating because Snoke had the potential to be a great villain, but in the end, he was just another tool Palpatine used.

A Fun Fact to Wrap It Up

Snoke’s design was actually based on unused concept art for Emperor Palpatine. Early Star Wars artwork by Ralph McQuarrie imagined Palpatine as a tall, grotesque figure with deep scars – ideas that were later repurposed for Snoke’s final look.