Star Wars: 7 Ways That Palpatine Could Return For Rise Of Skywalker

7. He Never Died

The easiest way to bring Palpatine back for Episode IX might simply be to reveal that he never actually died.

At the end of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker’s act of sacrifice, of setting his weapon aside in favor of taking a peaceful stand, won over the heart of his father, Darth Vader, leading to Vader throwing Palpatine down a reactor shaft on the second Death Star.

At the time, it appeared as if this had killed the Emperor, what with him screaming all the way down and the subsequent explosion.

However, audiences never got confirmation that the character was in fact deceased following this. He wouldn’t be the first Sith to survive getting thrown down a shaft - even Darth Maul got cut in half before falling and still managed to survive it.

J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy made a point of consistently referencing the fact that the former and co-writer Chris Terrio used some of Lucas’ original plans for this concluding chapter, and this sounds exactly like the kind of thing Lucas might have originally included.