Ian McDiarmid Reflects on Palpatine’s Shocking ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Return
While the Star Wars sequel trilogy made a preponderance of divisive decisions, including the death of Han Solo, the characterization of Luke Skywalker, and the lineage of Rey, perhaps no narrative choice was more controversial than the decision to revive Emperor Palpatine for The Rise of Skywalker.
Following the poor reaction to The Last Jedi, J.J. Abrams decided to bring Emperor Palpatine back from the dead and revealed that the Sith Lord was Rey’s grandfather.
Ian McDiarmid Reflects on Palpatine’s Return
In a recent interview, Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed Emperor Palpatine in all seven of the Sith Lord’s Star Wars film appearances, admitted that he was as surprised as anyone that the Emporer was alive.
“A lot of people said it was ridiculous. Of course, he was dead at the end of Return Of The Jedi! And frankly, I think George thought he’d killed me too. But J.J. thought it would be a good idea – I wasn’t going to argue with him,” McDiarmid said.
“I felt that Palpatine always had a plan B – probably a plan C, D, E, and F as well. And he was an expert in cloning.”
“That is Total Evil”
Still, considering how dominant Palpatine’s influence has been on the Star Wars universe, perhaps it was not surprising that the Emperor was alive after all.
Palpatine’s status as the ultimate antagonist is something that McDiarmid is proud of.
“The thing that I’m most pleased about, and you know, this only came to a head when they asked me to come back for The Rise Of Skywalker, is that every single evil act in all of the Star Wars franchise is either directly or indirectly down to that character,” he explained.
“That is total evil, and that’s strangely satisfying as an arc. I do feel fortunate to have been able to do it – and other villains of cinema now have to compete with that.”
Following his showdown with Rey and a redeemed Ben Solo on Exegol, it looks like Palpatine’s reign is finally over. Still, in the Star Wars universe, one never knows for sure.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is streaming on Disney+.