The Rise of Skywalker Editor Reveals Palpatine's Backstory was Cut Because it Went 'Off-Topic'

Probably one of the biggest gripes that fans have about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the return of Emperor Palpatine. Though some accept the fact that he has come back, the movie does no explanation as to how he survived all of these years. What's interesting is, the explanation was originally in the film, but was ultimately cut to keep the focus on the main characters.

Talking to The Huffington Post, The Rise of Skywalker editor Maryann Brandon explained, "It was kind of a delicate balance and went back and forth a lot about how much we wanted to reveal… Some scenes changed quite a bit, the way that we wanted to present it to the audience. In the end, we ended up showing a lot less of it than we started with."

When it came to Palpatine's backstory, she explains that there was, ""a little more information about it, what was keeping [Palpatine] alive… [but it] seemed to go off topic."

While I'm always for forgoing exposition for story, I guess the return of Palpatine isn't really something that the film can skim over. After all, he was the main villain of the Original and Prequel Trilogy, and bringing him back kind of needs a proper explanation.

Then again, though they cut Palpatine's backstory from the movie, The Rise of Skywalker still felt like a cluttered mess. If you ask me, they should have just rode on the set-up of The Last Jedi which made Kylo Ren the main villain; instead, Kylo is once again pushed to the side so that he could do the bidding of the ‘real' big bad. Talk about wasted potential.

Catch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker now in theaters.

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