A ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ Star Claims George Lucas Would Have Kept His Character Dead

(Spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to come)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has been out for a week, and Palpatine’s resurrection still doesn’t make sense. We laid out the reasons why here, but the gist is: “It’s just weird that the other two movies didn’t even hint at Palpatine’s return, then over the course of two and a half hours we get, ‘Hey, it’s me! I’m back!,’ then, ‘Oops, I guess I’m dead again!’ (for the record, those are not direct quotes from the movie).” Even actor Ian McDiarmid, who plays the Emperor (and gives the best performance out of anyone in the Star Wars prequels), seems to think his resurrection came out of nowhere, or at least that George Lucas never would have brought back Sheev.

“I thought he was dead. Because when we did Return of the Jedi, and I was thrown down that chute to Galactic Hell, he was dead. And I said, ‘Oh, does he come back?’ And [George] said, ‘No, he’s dead.’ So I just accepted that,” McDiarmid told Digital Spy. He added that at the time Lucas told him this, he didn’t know about the prequels, but “I was totally surprised” by the Emperor’s Rise of Skywalker return. He’s not the only one.

Speaking of Palpatine, the theory that he’s Anakin’s father (it’s a whole thing) has been throughly debunked. “This is all in Anakin’s head … I can tell you definitively, as someone who worked on the comic, that is 100% not the intended implication,” Star Wars Story Group member Matt Martin tweeted, adding, “It’s part of my job to ensure the stories are aligned with the overall vision of Star Wars. If the intention was to make a direct connection between Palps and Anakin’s birth, I would have had it removed.”

Leave Shmi Skywalker alone. Hasn’t she suffered enough?

(Via Digital Spy)