How does Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker bring back Palpatine?

Note: Contains spoilers for the opening scene of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Unusually for JJ Abrams, the first trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker included the major reveal that Emperor Palpatine was back.

Ian McDiarmid reprised his role as the evil Sith Lord for the climactic chapter of the Skywalker Saga. But hang on... last time we saw him, wasn't he thrown down a shaft in the second Death Star, before that same Death Star exploded?

As Darth Maul proved, you can't keep an evil Sith down, but how exactly does The Rise of Skywalker deal with his return? Minor spoilers await (mainly for the opening scene), so don't read on if you haven't seen it.

The opening crawl gives a hint as to why Abrams revealed Palpatine's return so early, since he's the focus of the first paragraph. It seems there's been a "mysterious broadcast" across the galaxy, with Palpatine threatening "revenge" (presumably against the Jedi).

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) isn't too happy about that, keen as he is to destroy any "threat to his power", so the opening sequence sees him head to Exogol in the Unknown Regions where the broadcast is coming from.

Here he meets Palpatine, but it's not quite the Palpatine we remember.

Instead it's a sort of seriously weakened version, held up by machines, although he's still able to taunt Kylo Ren using the voices of Snoke and Darth Vader: "My boy. I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your head."

View full post on Instagram

Palpatine tasks Kylo Ren to "kill the girl" (Rey) to "end the Jedi", so off he goes on a mission to track down Rey.

As for how Palpatine is actually back, we get very little explanation although he does talk about the dark side being a "path to many abilities some consider unnatural", echoing the Darth Plagueis story in Revenge of the Sith.

View full post on YouTube

One of those abilities must be to survive beyond a fatal fall into a shaft, and Palpatine's return is just accepted as a fact when the Resistance learn of Palpatine's "Final Order" (a plan to conquer the galaxy once and for all).

But if you delve into the Star Wars canon, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that the evil Sith Lord was able to survive his fall in Return of the Jedi.

After all, Darth Maul – Palpatine's one-time apprentice, remember – was literally cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi and fell down a shaft, only to survive and resurface on the junk planet Lotho Minor.

He was then able to build new mechanical legs for himself and nurse his hatred, eventually founding the Shadow Collective – as seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars – and becoming the leader of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn – as seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

If Darth Maul can do all of that, why can't Palpatine have survived in the Unknown Regions, plotting his revenge?

We know he had a connection to it as the Aftermath books revealed that he had stockpiles of resources (to rebuild the Empire in the event of his death), and he also had observatories built to investigate a "dark presence" there.

As for the rest of Palpatine's role in The Rise of Skywalker, you'll just have to watch it to find out...

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in cinemas now.

Disney+ Sign up for Disney+

Shop at Disney+

Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

£4 at Amazon

Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Complete Box Set [Blu-ray] [2019] [Region Free]

£100 at Amazon

Century Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Expanded Edition) by Rae Carson

£5 at Amazon

Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars - The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] [1977] [Region Free]

£20 at Amazon

Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (Episodes IV-VI) [Blu-ray] [1977] [Region Free]

£33 at Amazon

Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens [Blu-ray] [2015] [Region Free]

£10 at Amazon

Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Last Jedi [4K UHD] [Blu-ray] [2017]

£10 at Amazon

Disney/Lucasfilm Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [Blu-ray] [2017] [Region Free]

£14 at Amazon

Disney/Lucasfilm Solo: A Star Wars Story [4K] [Blu-ray] [2018] [Region Free]

£20 at Amazon

Digital Spy now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Ian Sandwell

Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.