The first trailer forStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerincluded a surprising reveal at the end—the laugh of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Palpatine was actually the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and pulled the strings in the prequel trilogy to rise to Emperor. He was thought dead at the end ofStar Wars: Return of the Jediwhen Darth Vader threw him down a pit on the second Death Star and then the second Death Star blew up. He might still be dead—the laugh could be from a clone or a ghost—butScreenRantreports that it was always the plan to bring Palpatine back:
“This had been in the blueprint for a long time. We had not landed on exactly how we might do that, but yes [it was always in Episode 9],” said producerKathleen Kennedy.
Palpatine is kind of weird character in theStar Warsuniverse. In the prequel trilogy, he’s very well played by McDiarmid and provides some bright spots in those dim movies. But is he an interesting character? That’s debatable.
I would say what Palpatine brings to the table is that he’s an evil guy, and that he represents how there will always be evil in the world. The test comes when good people come to meet that evil and the question of how will different generations fare? But bringing back Palpatine specifically drains the uniqueness from the situation. The evil you face is the same evil your parents faced. It seems a bit reductive and leans heavily on nostalgia.
Again, we have no idea how Palpatine specifically factors into the story, but it is surprising that they’ve wanted to use him since the beginning of this new trilogy. I’m genuinely curious to see if we’ve missed any clues to Palpatine’s existence along the way or if they’ll attempt to retcon him in to the ninth chapter so that he was behind the Knights of Ren or something.
For more onThe Rise of Skywalker, peruse our recent articles below:
