Matt Smith’s Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Role Is Related To Palpatine

After months of speculation as to who exactly Matt Smith is playing in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, or even if he’s really in it or not, our first look at The Crown actor in character arrived online yesterday. Many have theorized that he’d be turning up as one of the Knights of Ren or perhaps a young Palpatine, but the image below reveals that he’s portraying some kind of blue-skinned alien wearing a face mask and helmet.

This seems to debunk a lot of these long-held ideas about who Smith might be showing up as, but We Got This Covered has got hold of some new intel about his character that tells us the speculation wasn’t entirely wrong. Our sources – the same ones who told us about Rey and Palpatine’s “special connection” in the film, which has since been confirmed by the always reliable Making Star Wars – have informed us that the former Doctor Who star is definitely in the movie but his exact role is still unclear. However, we’ve heard that he is somehow related to Palpatine and, specifically, the villain’s resurrection.

A common idea for Smith’s role was that he would be a host body for the revived Darth Sidious, something fueled by the fact that, though we’ve heard his voice, Ian McDiarmid has yet to appear in the flesh in the trailers. But, unless Palpatine’s going to be blue this time around, we can probably rule that out now. Nonetheless, Smith’s alien character will apparently play some key part in restoring Palpatine.

WGTC has previously reported on what Palpatine’s plan in Episode IX is, how he’ll try to coax Rey and Kylo Ren over to his side and the aforementioned “special connection” he has to Rey. In fact, even the manner of his eventual defeat may have been unveiled, though this comes from another source. Still, further details on Smith’s character have been hard to come by ever since his involvement was announced and it’s clear that Lucasfilm is keeping things tightly under wraps.

Maybe he’ll feature in the incoming trailer, though? If not, all will be revealed when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th.