The upcoming return of Emperor Sheev Palpatine certainly has a lot of people excited for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. However, it also poses the dilemma of his death being retconned in Return of the Jedi. Nevertheless, it's still possible to have the Sith Lord come back as the primary villain without having to ruin Anakin Skywalker's sacrifice in the original trilogy.
Palpatine's return was confirmed at last month's Star Wars Celebration where Ian McDiarmid showed up at the end of the Star Wars Episode IX panel. The Rise of Skywalker trailer also concluded with the Emperor laughing so there is little doubt that he's still up to no good. So does this mean that Anakin Skywalker gave his life up for nothing? Not necessarily.
There have been speculations that Palpatine actually survived the fall in Return of the Jedi but others believe that the Emperor found a different way to come back despite his death. After all, he spoke to Anakin about the tragedy of Darth Plagueis, who found out how to become immortal. The theory purports that Palpatine actually kept his life essence in a secret place and the only way to truly get rid of him is to destroy it.
But if Palpatine did survive, there's still an interesting way for him to be defeated. Screenrant suggests that Kylo Ren's insistence on finishing what Darth Vader started might actually mean his desire to defeat the man who killed his grandfather. This could mean we have all been wrong about Ben Solo all this time.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will premiere on December 20.
Related: Star Wars: Episode IX Star Adam Driver Talks About Kylo And Rey's Relationship
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Star Wars: Episode IX