Emperor will return from beyond the grave. Confirming this, the trailer was aired at Star Wars Celebration. When the lights went up again afterwards, delighted fans found that Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid himself had taken to the stage.
But, while all attention has focused in on this particular mystery, there's something else that's been rumbling in the background since became a Force Ghost.
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that Palpatine's resurrection was always in the works, which means other mysteries as far back as Star Wars: The Force Awakens may be tied to his mysterious return. So is it possible that these two issues are somehow tied together?
Palpatine Lives... Somehow
Lucasfilm has been building up to Palpatine's return for quite some time. After Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, they reset the canon, erasing the old Expanded Universe from continuity. Since then, Lucasfilm has been releasing a range of new canon content, from tie-in comics to official novels. And these tie-ins have consistently been stressing that the Emperor sought to find a way to live on after death. "The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural," Palpatine observed in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, and he's been shown attempting to learn the secrets of every one of those abilities. Meanwhile, in the comics the Emperor has even sponsored scientific attempts to overcome death, notably a cloning experiment that would allow his consciousness to be transferred to a clone body.
trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It's clear that Lucasfilm is priming viewers to expect Palpatine's return; not just as a spirit, but a full physical resurrection given McDiarmid is returning. ing this, Palpatine's advisers used some very interesting words to describe the return of Palpatine in Aftermath: Empire's End. One talked about him being "enfleshed." So the only question is - how will the Emperor pull this off?
Sith Masks Are A Known Resurrection Tool
It's crucial to understand that, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi had been seen before in Legends.
In fact, Lucasfilm has been deliberately stressing the idea that Sith spirits can live on through their masks. The "Aftermath" trilogy featured a group of Sith cultists who called themselves the Acolytes of the Beyond, a cult formed by one of Palpatine's old advisers. They possessed a range of dark side artifacts, including ancient Sith masks. In one scene, a girl donned one of the masks and fell under its influence, losing all doubt and fear, giving in to bloodlust and rage. The description of the mask was reminiscent of the one Kylo Ren wears; it may not be the same one, but it was disturbingly similar.
More recently, Charles Soule's Darth Vader run ended with the tale of literally recreated his long-gone body. Soule's story not only s the idea that a Sith spirit can live on in a mask, but also that it can indeed "enflesh" itself at a place steeped in the dark side of the Force.
Kylo Ren Has Apparently Communicated With Darth Vader's Mask
Of course, Palpatine wasn't wearing a mask at the moment of his death in Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker wouldn't seduce anyone to the dark side; if he were so inclined, he'd be unable to become a Force Ghost in the first place.
That raises the intriguing possibility that Kylo Ren was communicating with a different spirit; that Palpatine transferred his essence into his apprentice's mask, a smart way of seeking to live on after death. This would be classic Palpatine, subverting the Sith Rule of Two. Traditionally, every Sith apprentice is expected to one day betray and supplant their master, but the Emperor doesn't seem to have believed in that much. It would be so very in-character for him to give his apprentice a mask that he intended to possess at the moment of his death, meaning he would be able to haunt, and ultimately dominate, the apprentice who had betrayed him. What's more, the Emperor could be confident that Darth Vader would return to his home on Mustafar, giving Palpatine's spirit access to the same Force nexus that Momin had been able to use to resurrect himself. Viewed through this lens, ironically Darth Vader's death was a miscalculation on the Emperor's part; fortunately Ben Solo traveled to Endor and picked up the mask, giving the Emperor a second chance.
Vader Would Be Palpatine's Best Way To Seduce Ben Solo
If this theory is accurate, it subtly rewrites the history of the sequel trilogy. Leia believed that Supreme Leader Snoke was the one who had seduced her son to the dark side, but this raises the chilling possibility that it was Palpatine himself - pretending to be the spirit of Darth Vader. The Emperor has always been a master of manipulation, as shown in the prequels, and he excels at manipulating Skywalkers. He would undoubtedly hone in on Ben Solo's reverence for Darth Vader, and choose to present himself as the spirit of Ben Solo's grandfather, convincing the youth he was doing the right thing by turning to the dark side.
Snoke himself becomes merely an opportunist, a pretender who claimed Palpatine's throne - and would no doubt be viewed with amusement by the Emperor. Star Wars: The Last Jedi treated Snoke as an irrelevance, killing him as though he simply didn't matter. If Palpatine is the mask of Darth Vader, the true being who seduced Ben Solo to the dark side, then Snoke really was just a minor obstacle. In The Last Jedi, Snoke was scornful of Kylo Ren's reverence of Darth Vader; it would be ironic if the Supreme Leader's disdain had missed what was truly going on.
