Newly released behind-the-scenes photos from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker give us a better look at Ian McDiarmid as the resurrected Emperor Palpatine.
J.J. Abrams’ concluding entry in the Sequel Trilogy and the Skywalker Saga as a whole left much to be desired in terms of plot and character development. Even the return of Palpatine and the revelation that he’s been the one pulling the strings all this time didn’t really leave much of an impact, though fans were nonetheless happy to see Ian McDiarmid appear as Darth Sidious one more time.
While the theatrical cut didn’t give us any explanations whatsoever as to how the former Emperor survived his fall from Return of the Jedi, the official novelization has answered many of our questions by revealing that the Palpatine we see in The Rise of Skywalker was actually a clone whose body housed the original Emperor’s subconsciousness. In addition, Rey isn’t exactly his granddaughter but rather, her father was a failed clone experimentation that went rogue. Alas, fans didn’t take a liking to these new twists, and with good reason, too.
The performance of Ian McDiarmid, though, has always received praise and adoration from the fandom of that galaxy far, far away, regardless of the group that’s helming the respective project. At this point, we’d even pay to see the actor read a breakfast cereal box as Palpatine. While that obviously won’t happen, fans can still feast their eyes on these new BTS photos that show him with prosthetics.
The evil Sith Lord spent most of the movie hiding his deteriorated face in the shadows, though when Rey and Ben come together and form a Force Dyad, Palpatine rejuvenates himself by sucking the living Force out of them, giving himself a few minutes of glory and unlimited power before his final battle with Rey, the Last Jedi.
Tell us, though, were you happy to see Palpatine come back one last time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker? Sound off in the comments below with your thoughts.
