J.J. Abrams didn’t waste time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to give us an idea of how Palpatine came back to life and pushed this revelation aside by slipping in a line of dialogue from the Prequel Trilogy.
“The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural,” declares Darth Sidious as Kylo Ren steps forward to face him on Exegol in the opening of Episode IX. And that’s essentially all the explanation we receive in the movie about how Palpatine survived his fall during the Battle of Endor.
The Emperor’s ominous and iconic dialogue seems to point to the fact that he may have used the force to keep himself alive after Darth Vader threw him down a reactor shaft. Though as the folks at ScreenRant have pointed out, there may be more to the story than we currently think.
Now, we know that cloning has always been an integral element of the Star Wars universe ever since the first movie, A New Hope, mentioned the Clone Wars in passing. The army of clones was first introduced in Attack of the Clones, and we ultimately realized their creation was part of Sidious’s plan to overthrow the Jedi and bring about the fall of the Galactic Republic.
Moreover, if Palpatine’s return in The Rise of Skywalker seems familiar, that’s because it’s happened before in the Dark Empire comic series, now a part of Legends which are deemed as non-canon by Disney. During the events of said storyline, Luke Skywalker goes to a planet called Byss, which is entirely enveloped in the dark side of the Force, much like Exegol. There, he meets a revived Emperor whose dialogue closely mirrors what he says to Ren in the movie.
Though unlike the film, this Palpatine goes on to explain how he’s managed to survive by periodically transferring himself into a new clone. Even in the movie, Darth Sidious points out that he created Snoke as a puppet to seize control of the galaxy, and a shot actually depicts the Supreme Leader’s cloning process.
So, is it so strange to suggest that’s how the Sith cultists on Exegol, known as Sith Eternal, brought Palpatine back to life? Unfortunately, until further confirmation from official sources or other Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker content that’s yet to come, we won’t know the answer for sure. But that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate to fill in the void left by Abrams’ divisive movie.
