In fact, the character probably won’t show up in the new trilogy at all.
Given the fact we don’t know a whole lot about much of The Force Awakens’ story, it’s easy to start filling in the blanks with material from the old Expanded Universe or wild theories. For example, the lack of information on Luke Skywalker led to theories that he was Kylo Ren or that he’d turned to the dark side, both of which are highly unlikely.
Another string of rumors worming their way through the internet has focused on the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. Some think he’s the threat behind the First Order, others believe he’ll be the mastermind behind everything in the saga, and a few just really hope Rey is using his staff.
Well, we’re here to tell you… all those things probably won’t happen.
Back up. Who is Darth Plagueis?
A member of the Munn species, Darth Plagueis was a Sith Lord that took Palpatine as his apprentice and trained him into the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Together, they orchestrated Palpatine’s rise to political power. The night Palpatine became Supreme Chanellor, however, he got Plageuis drunk and killed him in his sleep with Force lightning. Presumably, Palpatine likes his dead Sith Lords Cajun style.
Are those events the same in both continuities?
For the most part, yes. The expanded universe version has more details, but in both continuities it’s confirmed that Darth Plagueis is Palpatine’s master, whom Palpatine killed in his sleep.
If he’s dead, why do people think he’s in the new trilogy?
Well, when you have no information to work off of it’s easy to fill in the blanks with whatever looks good. Often, these things can be over thought and this being the internet someone thought Supreme Leader Snoke could be Darth Plagueis, who somehow survived being killed by Palpatine. It’s actually not a terrible theory, but we’re very sure it’s false.
Why do you think it’s false?
Well, to be fair it’s not impossible, but there are a number of reasons why it’s highly unlikely.
First, in both continuities it’s been stated that Palpatine killed Plagueis. While he might not have been able to finish off Luke and Yoda, for the most part when he wanted someone dead it meant the person in question was a complete goner.
Second, we don’t think J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan know who Darth Plagueis is, let alone care. When someone asked Kasdan if Plagueis was in the movies, he mistook the name for “Darth Vegas.” While some claim that doesn’t matter because the Lucasfilm story group is running the show, we disagree. Abrams and Kasdan were given creative freedom to create the story they wanted with The Force Awakens, inspired by the work of Lucas and Michael Arndt of course. If they didn’t know or care about Plagueis… he probably isn’t going to be in the film or the new trilogy.
What about his staff?
There’s been a theory going around that Rey’s staff belonged to Darth Plagueis, since hers looks like the one the character has in his action figure:
But if the filmmakers don’t care about the character… it’s probably safe they don’t care about his staff either. In fact, it’s been confirmed by Daisy Ridley herself that sometimes a staff is just a staff:
“I mean everyone is praying that it’s Darth Plagueis’s staff. But… it’s just a staff. She’s a young woman in a galaxy by herself. It’s not primarily a weapon, it’s useful as well. It does all sorts of things roamin’ around Jakku. She uses it to defend herself. That’s really as far as it goes, unfortunately”.
Will we ever see Darth Plagueis again?
Well, it’s certainly possible we’ll see him in books or comics. Perhaps even a spin off film. But don’t expect to see him in the new trilogy.
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Not convinced by your argument guys. It makes far more sense that Snoke is Plagueis based on the points you’ve mentioned. The fact that Palpatine mentions Plagueis in the prequels sets it up perfectly, and would tie all three trilogies together. Having read the death of Plagueis, its very likely that he could have clouded Sidious’s vision, seeing as he was able to manipulate midi-cholorians to the point at which he was able to create and influence life. From the recent Andy Serkis interview, Andy says that his character is ‘damaged’, leading me to believe that again its setting up the character to have in fact survived Sidious’s attempt to kill him. Andy Serkis has been photographed filming in motion capture gear holding a staff – darth plagueis has a staff. He also said in the same interview, that due to the physical bone structure of the character he plays, mo-cap was necessary, rather than prosthetics and make up. Plagueis’ head, arms and legs are elongated, as you can see from the pictures you included in your article, adding to the theory. Admittedly, those pictures come from the extended universe which has now been written off. However its still quite clear that JJ is drawing plenty of inspiration from the old EU, Kylo Ren’s look being an excellent example (similarities to Darth Revan).
In terms of story telling and film making alone, it makes far more sense to have Plagueis as the Sith Lord pulling the strings from behind the scenes in place of a random new villian. Its a natural way for them to escalate the sense of jeopardy in a way that wouldn’t feel contrived and as mentioned earlier, its an excellent way for them to continue to tie all 3 trilogies together.
I think we’ll find that this turns out to be a classic JJ Abrams deception. You can’t put any stock in what JJ or Kasdan say. Do you really think these guys could be put in charge of part of a multi billion dollar franchise and not know the plot/characters of the films inside out?
Only one thing to do… and that’s wait to see the film!
Your argument is much more convincing and logical than theirs lol… Maybe YOU shold be the one writing these articles hah!
“In terms of story telling and film making alone, it makes far more sense
to have Plagueis as the Sith Lord pulling the strings from behind the
scenes in place of a random new villian. Its a natural way for them to
escalate the sense of jeopardy in a way that wouldn’t feel contrived and
as mentioned earlier, its an excellent way for them to continue to tie
all 3 trilogies together.”
That was my thought process as well. Imagine the reaction if it was Plagueis:
“OMGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!! STROKE OF GENIUS FROM THE WRITERS!!!!” etc, etc…
If it was some random new evil guy:
“Ah… well now we know their leader. That’s nice….. Moving on.”
I have to ask.
What do you think of the Snoke/Plagueis/Jar Jar theory that is making the rounds now?
It’s pure DUNG. Jar-Jar was/is useless, and NOT a force-user. I’ve seen and read up on the “theory, and my 5 year old makes more sense than that whilst playing with his figures.
OR… Plagueis used some kind of shapeshifting ability to mask himself as Jar Jar Binks… This would tie in well to Plagueis manipulating everything in plain sight while also eliminating the travesty that is “Jar Jar Binks” in the prequels. The real Jar Jar Binks was killed before the events of The Phantom Menace, and Plagueis masked himself as the bumbling moronic character to hide in plain sight… Who would ever suspect the bumbling moron to use force mind control to manipulate an entire senate?
Fuck.
Don’t you just hate when not owners of intellectyal property, like, say, writers behind expanded universe, treat this property MUCH better than actual owners?
Drives me nuts
She’s trolling us. That’s what they WANT us to think.. They promote Rey way too much with that staff for it NOT to be special.
Rey is going to be a jedi, there is no denying that now.
Walmart accidentally released a figure of her with a lightsaber yesterday (a week early), and Disney has been handing DMCA letters to everyone who posted pictures of it.
Not to mention… At the comic con panel, when they are asked about Darth Plagueis… Daisy says “Oh, are they asking about Sn-” and JJ immediately cuts her off and passes the question to Lawrence who probably has a finite knowledge of where the trilogy is going to extend, especially since Rian Johnson will be officially writing the last movie, episode IX.
Not to mention… At the comic con panel, when they are asked about Darth Plagueis… Daisy says “Oh, are they asking about Sn-” and JJ immediately cuts her off and passes the question to Lawrence who probably has a finite knowledge of where the trilogy is going to extend, especially since Rian Johnson will be officially writing the last movie, episode IX.
Does the authour know anything about Plagieis? His whole thing was cheating death with the Force. About immortality. So could he have survived, or returned in a universe we already know to have Force Ghosts? Ya, it’s possible.
And, by the looks of Snoke in Force Awakens, it’s quite obvious that he cheated death.
Not only is Snoke Darth Plagueis, Darth Plagueis is Darth Bane. He learned the technique of essence transfer and established the Rule of Two as a means of attaining immortality and ever increasing power. Each time the apprentice proves themselves more powerful by killing the master, Plageuis transferred his essence into the apprentice gaining their power. Now there’s a fan theory.
Here I’d been thinking Rey was related to the Tusken Raiders in some way–the mask, the staff, et cet.
Your reasons are horrible- because Kasdan asked “Darth Vegas?” He was still working off of an outline that is approved by Kennedy- not just JJ.
Also- it very well could have been a staged PR scam to throw us off. They do that.
Sorry but I disagree strongly. I believe Snoke to be Darth Plaugueis and Rey has his staff. It’s what he needs to become all powerful once again and it’s why he’s got the First Order looking for Luke so vigorously. I don’t think it’s just because he’s Luke Skywalker. He believes Luke has the staff, probably because Kylo Ren told him so. Its also the reason Rey is able to meet every challenge she’s faced in Episode 7. She’s been holding onto it most of her life because Luke stashed her on Jakku along with the one device that would allow a stranded little girl left to survive on a desolate scavenger planet. The staff augmented Rey’s already latent Jedi abilities. It’s also the reason Lor San Tekka is on Jakku with a map to Skywalker. He was entrusted to look out for Rey, while he and the map served as a decoy for anyone that came to Jakku looking for answers. I also think the staff will be revealed as the tool Plagueis used in an experiment he conducted many years ago to create Anikin Skywalker. Could be youre right and I’m crazy but I think it would be pretty cool if this is at least the direction the new saga is going in.
I have to say. Smoke being plaguis would tie everything. And I mean everything together. Especially…,if plaguis created Anakin by accident with the force. This would make sense for his fear of the sky walker blood line, for his desire to get the sky walkers under his control or dead. It would make sense that he watched darth sidious think he had won and had control with his empire. But plaguis knew the empire would be short lived. Plus he was weak and damaged, he could not resurface until the empire was lost and leaderless. How else could he have snatched Ben solo from the light side. Originally plaguis planned for Ben solo to just be a dark Jedi (not too much of a threat), but now that Rey is going to get trained by Luke he needs his pawn to be strong in the dark side- aka become a Sith Lord himself. If Anakin was created purpose, then perhaps plaguis was “killed” before he could collect Anakin for himself. I’d rather like to hypothesize that he impregnated Shmi by accident- shooting the force across the galaxy. This would make the tremendous power within the skywalker bloodline be 1. Not just genetic talent, but a spawn of a very powerful being and 2. Somewhat makes the sky walkers related to plaguis, at least as the creations of his power which flows in their veins. Plaguis is ancient, a being from a time when Jedi and sith were much more powerful because the vast knowledge and training of that time period. Only time will tell! Thanks for reading my theory.
One of the best opinions and argumentations I sough about Plagueis theory. If someone from Disney would read this you wrote..The benefits of puting Plagueis behind the Snoke for the entire Star Wars saga and for the new trillogy is immenese. Such strongly tied story-line. I always wandered why that every Skywalker drifts to the Dark side so much (except Leia TBH, she’s the only who never felt the pull ofdark side as we know it). I fell benefits of Plagues behing Snoke are so big that Disney already had it on agenda.Its impossible they didnt discussed Plagueis as an option for Snoke, and after people actauly well accepting this , I think there is good chance they will put Plagueis behind Snoke( Ithink they didn’t decided yet all about Snoke)
This is the worst article I’ve ever read.
“Second, we don’t think J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan know who Darth Plagueis is, let alone care. ”
Hahahaha…. You really think that these people are in charge of the films of a multi-billion dollar franchise and they don’t know who these people are?
I rather hope Snoke is Plagueis.
But the “Rule of Two” would seem to require that the apparent death of Plagueis take place before Darth Maul was formally apprenticed to Darth Sidious.
(of course the decision to un-kill Darth Maul for the Clone Wars show makes hash of the Rule anyway).
What a shit article. It doesn’t sound like you’ve done your homework on Plagueis at all.
Are you guys thick as shit or something??? You don’t think JJ Abrams would know who Darth Plagueis is??? JJ Being a big Star Wars fan himself, and the fact that he would have been spending a lot of time watching all the previous movies to make sure he got every single detail down to a molecular level 100000000% correct in The Force Awakens. He most certainly knows who Plagueis is.