One of the biggest questions surrounding "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is the identity of the film's main villain.

We all know that Kylo Ren is the dark Knight of Ren who drives the narrative as the antagonist, but we also know that he is just a pawn, an apprentice to a darker lord. Supreme Leader Snoke is the name being mentioned for the motion capture character played by Andy Serkis.

But who is he?

One of the big rumors being hinted is that Snoke is none other than Dark Plagueis, the Sith Lord that entered into Star Wars lore when he was mentioned for the first time in "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." During the famed opera scene, Emperor Palpatine tells Anakin the tragedy of Plagueis, who had the ability to manipulate the midichlorians and create life. He could "stop people from dying."

Plagueis is reportedly murdered by his apprentice according to Palpatine, who is in fact the very pupil of the famed Sith Lord.

Yet the big rumor going around is that Plagueis is not actually dead and that he knew how to use his force powers to come back to life. It might actually be feasible. If Qui-Gon Jinn could concoct a means to help Jedi transform into force ghosts after death and achieve immortality, then why is it difficult to believe that Plagueis, who already knew how to create life, could not find a way to bring himself back from the dead after being murdered -- if he was in fact killed.

What is more intriguing of course is that Plagueis makes a lot of sense in the grand scheme of the saga. There has been a lot of outcry over the mistreatment of the prequel films in the new marketing of "Episode VII," and some have started to wonder if the production team is even looking to excise them from the canon. We all know that that is not the case, but it does mean that, in ignoring those films, the new trilogy could create a major imbalance in the nine-film arc when all is said and done.

Unless of course there is a connection.

The opera scene is one of the few that escapes major criticism when it comes to prequels, and many often cite it as the lone moment where the Star Wars mythos is given new insight. Most people appreciate the scene, and it would be no surprise if J.J. Abrams latched on to it as his sole means of connecting the prequels to the sequels, thus forming a natural cohesive narrative tissue.

Of course that poses problems of its own. Was Plagueis hiding out or was he always pulling the strings? It is unlikely that Palpatine would know about him, especially given his version of the events in "Revenge of the Sith."

If this seems like an outlandish theory, it is interesting to note that many people have brought it up in interviews with actors of the new film. Daisy Ridley's Rey is seen carrying a staff throughout the trailers of the new film; a staff that looks markedly similar to the one Plagueis apparently carries around. When Ridley was asked about the staff and whether it belonged to Plagueis, she remained silent, her expression almost giving her away.

Is Darth Plagueis in the new film?

UPDATE: The music for both Snoke in "The Force Awakens" and Darth Plagueis in "Revenge of the Sith" is pretty close to identical.