Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker came out going on five years ago, yet fans continue to debate its most controversial elements – including Emperor Palpatine’s comeback. Actor Ian McDiarmid himself recently entered the fray, mounting a defense of Palpatine’s Rise of Skywalker return so impressive, it’s almost enough to make an ardent naysayer reconsider.
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What People Didn’t Like About Palpatine’s Rise of Skywalker Return
That takes some doing, too. For many of The Rise of Skywalker‘s detractors (myself included), the way director J.J. Abrams and co-screenwriter Chris Terrio shoehorned Palpatine into the film is emblematic of its wider failures. First and foremost, like the rest of Episode IX, Palpatine’s introduction is painfully rushed. We don’t necessarily need a blow-by-blow account of how the Sith Lord cheated death following Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but a few vague lines of dialogue and a Fortnite event don’t cut it.
Palpatine’s inclusion in The Rise of Skywalker does more than just leave gaping holes in Star Wars canon, though – it outright breaks it. Again, this is also true of the wider movie. The confusing revelation that the Emperor is actually the latest in a long line of Sith body swappers (or… something?) doesn’t exactly mesh neatly with established lore, any more than Rey and Kylo Ren’s “Force Dyad” business did. Story should always trump continuity in Star Wars (as in everything else), but the overarching narrative should still hang together when the credits roll. Thanks in part to Palpatine, that’s simply not the case here.
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But worst of all, Palpatine’s unlikely resurrection was (like the rest of The Rise of Skywalker) steeped in Star Wars nostalgia. That’s hardly surprising, given Abrams also helmed the first entry in the sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens, which was effectively a “Star Wars‘ Greatest Hits” album. But coming off Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which – for any of its faults – tried to clear the slate so that new baddies like Kylo Ren could take center stage, bringing back the franchise’s original overarching antagonist feels needlessly regressive.
It fits with the wider pattern of Abrams (and Lucasfilm) using The Rise of Skywalker to roll back The Last Jedi‘s more divisive narrative developments. Didn’t like Supreme Leader Snoke’s abrupt exit in that flick? Don’t worry: here’s the original, better version! Not a fan of Rey’s parents being random space trash? Psyche: she’s Palpatine’s granddaughter! Every new, polarizing character or concept is gone, replaced by the comfort of familiar things. So yeah, convincing us naysayers that the addition of Palpatine to The Rise of Skywalker was a good move is a Coruscant skyscraper-sized mountain to climb.
How Ian McDiarmid Justified Palpatine’s Return in Rise of Skywalker
But to his credit, McDiarmid makes a fair, Force lightning-slinging fist of it in a recent interview with Empire. The Star Wars veteran kicked things off on the defensive, admitting that franchise creator George Lucas probably intended Palpatine’s Return of the Jedi demise to be final. But McDiarmid – who also portrayed the younger Palpatine in the prequels – then pivoted, citing various aspects of the Emperor’s characterization and history that explained how he clawed out of the grave
“I felt that Palpatine always had a plan B – probably a plan C, D, E, and F as well,” McDiarmid said. “And he was an expert in cloning, so…”. And the thing is, this all stacks up. Palpatine is an evil genius – a devious mastermind who successfully orchestrated the simultaneous downfall of the Republic and the Jedi Order. If anyone is going to have an escape hatch from the destruction of their physical body, it’s him. McDiarmid’s not wrong about Palpatine and cloning, either. The guy built the Empire off the back of a clone army, after all!
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McDiarmid even put a positive spin on the nostalgia factor of Palpatine’s franchise re-entry. According to the classically trained thespian, positioning Palpatine as the real source of all our heroes’ woes in the sequel trilogy adds greater cohesion to Star Wars‘ nine core entries. McDiarmid also argued that pinning the blame for everything on Palpatine enhances the Sith Lord’s malevolent character arc.
“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.”
These are decent arguments, and together with McDiarmid’s earlier points, make a solid case for Palpatine’s return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Indeed, it’s almost enough to convert a skeptic like me – almost.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently streaming on Disney+.
