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We finally know who Andy Serkis is playing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

We finally know who Andy Serkis is playing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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We've got less than seven months before J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters, and details about the film continue to slowly reveal themselves. In an interview with photographer Annie Leibovitz — who shot the recent Vanity Fair spread on the new film — StarWars.com has announced the name of Andy Serkis' character: Supreme Leader Snoke.

Unfortunately that's the only thing that's revealed at the moment, but the interview is paired with a Leibovitz picture of the actor in his full motion-capture gear, and judging from the snarl on his face Snoke is most certainly going to be a bad guy. Serkis is one of only a handful of characters we've heard actually speak so far, with his voice — "There's been an awakening... have you felt it?" — opening the original Force Awakens teaser last November. The other big reveal from the Vanity Fair spread was that Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie was the actor inside the metal stormtrooper gear of Captain Phasma (that name, by the way, is easily the most Phantom Menace-y thing about the new movie thus far).

How all of this fits together with the First Order (which appears to be the new Empire) or the Resistance (which appears to be the new Rebel Alliance) is still totally up in the air, but for the record this is one case in which I hope J.J. Abrams can keep the lid on his mystery box sealed tight up until opening day. The more surprises, the better.