Supreme Leader Snoke was originally going to be a woman in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Outside of Rey’s parentage, the biggest mystery surrounding the Star Wars sequel trilogy was the identity/origin of the First Order's Supreme Leader. Snoke, portrayed by Andy Serkis, appears for the first time as a large hologram, convening with (and often scolding) his apprentice, Kylo Ren.
All that is known about Snoke from Stars Wars: The Force Awakens is that he is very powerful with the Force. Before the events of that film, he used his influence over the dark side to seduce Ben Solo into becoming Kylo Ren. Snoke’s gruesome appearance, astute awareness of the Skywalker saga, and undisclosed origin led to a plethora of theories. Fans thought he might be a failed chosen one, while others mused he was Darth Plagueis inhabiting the deformed body of Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader.
Creature designer and sculptor Ivan Manzella spoke on the Force Material podcast about his work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, revealing there were multiple designs for Snoke. Similarly to Serkis (who knew very little about Snoke’s appearance during filming), Manzella wasn’t told many details about the character’s backstory. Originally, Manzella was under the impression the Supreme Leader was going to be female. He even drew concept art with Snoke as a woman:
I think initially when they spoke about her, [Snoke] was female. Because the first image I did I based on a female, but then that just very quickly went away. So either it was just in passing or something. But I think I just did one image. And that was it, and no one else did any more. I don’t know if anyone did really. Then, from then on, it just became the male.
Manzella went on to talk about how he based his male design on Peter Cushing. Cushing famously played Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: A New Hope. Ironically, given Snoke and Tarkin’s similar cheekbones and profile, many fans theorized that Snoke was Tarkin (having somehow survived the destruction of the Death Star). That theory, along with all the others, was proved false when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker revealed Snoke to be a puppet engineered on Exegol by Emperor Palpatine.
Many fans found Snoke’s abrupt demise in Star Wars: The Last Jedi anticlimactic. An enigmatic and promising villain with a looming presence in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was ultimately discarded in favor of a legacy character. The sequel trilogy’s inconsistencies can be chalked up to a lack of an outline and a revolving door of creatives. With J.J. Abrams writing and directing the first film, Rian Johnson the second, and Abrams the third, the trilogy lacked direction. A lot of narrative changes were made during the development of all three Star Wars sequel films. The initial confusion surrounding Snoke's gender isn't surprising because there never seemed to be a clear vision of who the character was at all.
Source: Force Material