Yeah, this is Harrison Ford's movie as far as the original cast goes.
There is a reason for this. I don't know if you know or want to know.
Leia first appears near the end of the second act.
Luke in two, maybe three scenes.
1. Flashback/vision by Maz Kanata
2. Possible hologram scene where he reveals his location
3. The final scene of the film
A lot of Luke in Episode VIII and Episode IX.
As far as Snoke, definitely no. He is not Darth Plagueis.
Abrams and Kasdan have already confirmed that neither Snoke nor Kylo are Sith.
The Sith are gone. That was the point of the prophecy of the Chosen One Anakin Skywalker.
It was Anakin's job to wipe out the Sith. The problem was that he becomes one first.
Kasdan would never screw with George's established history.
The prophecy spoke of the chosen one bringing balance to the force. A balance would be an equality of light and dark. No darkside would bring an imbalance. Anakin becoming a Sith, later being turned by Luke and then Anakin killing Sidious would mean an imbalance in the force given the darkside users are essentially wiped out. A balance would mean the rise of dark and light users....an awakening of the force.
Of course I've heard the arguement that having a lightside predominance is a force balance in that the darkside creates the imbalance.
Or that force users are aware of the darkside, but only utilize the lightside. Tapping into only light while acknowledging the presence of the dark (in which the force is balanced) is the appropriate use of the force (Sith are cancerous to the balance of the force in their use of the darkside).
I don't know. I just want Luke to kicka$$ as a master Jedi LOL.
The Knights of Ren may not be Sith, but they're force users, saber users and worshippers of the Sith.
Yes, JJ has said that about the Sith, but he's lied before to keep fans off the scent of the film (ex: Cumberbatch as Kahn in Trek).
Everything Serkis described about Snoke leads me more and more towards Plagueis.....long range planner, huge agenda, been hurt before, vulnerable yet extremely powerful, very tall, strange bone structure, must be created via CGI......that's all Plagueis to me. And 25 feet tall....that's dinosaur height LOL....that's Rancor height! Just a rumor, but not buying it. Plus the name Snoke is going to be a cover name....I know it.
SW canon are now the 6 films, Clone Wars and Rebels and this new trilogy is supposed to tie together and draw upon that established canon of which Plagueis is apart. If he was extremely powerful and powerful enough to "cheat death" and master darkside abilities that "some consider to be unnatural" then he could certainly have survived and sat quietly in the shadows waiting to unfold his "huge agenda". I hope so cause that sounds very cool to me.
Eh, could all be completely different LOL!