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Star Wars: George Lucas Told Ian McDiarmid That Palpatine was Dead After Return of the Jedi


Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker made it clear with the very first trailer that Emperor Palpatine was coming back in one way or another. The fact that Disney and LucasFilm got Ian McDiarmid to reprise his role was also a nice touch since no one plays Palpatine as well as he does. As fans rave or vent about the new movie, it's clear that Palpatine's resurrection will be a talking point for a long time.

However, when McDiarmid was asked by Digital Spy about Palpatine's resurrection, the actor said he was shocked by the move since George Lucas, Mr. Star Wars himself, told him that Palpatine was going to stay dead after Return of the Jedi. Granted, he was brought back for the prequels but those films are set before the original films and are allowed to do that; it's why they're called prequels.

I thought I was dead! 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.' [Laughs] So I just accepted that. But then, of course, I didn't know I was going to be doing the prequels, so in a sense he wasn't dead, because we went back to revisit him when he was a young man. But I was totally surprised by this.

Most of us rational Star Wars fans feel that this movie would have been a lot better if Palpatine stayed dead or, at the least, came back as a Force Ghost like Luke Skywalker. Why even make clones of Snoke if you're powerful enough to raise a thousand ships by yourself? Geez. Still had a good time though.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now showing in theaters. Return of the Jedi is now available in the Disney+ streaming service, DVD, and Blu-ray.

Read:Star Wars Fans Can't Get Over These Han and Ben Solo Parallels in The Rise of Skywalker

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