10 Biggest Star Wars Retcons

Though The Last Jedi left audiences divided over the direction of Disney's Star Wars sequels, the revelation that Emperor Palpatine was set to return for The Rise of Skywalker was exciting for fans of all ages.

Unfortunately though, the explanation for how Palps survived his "death" in Return of the Jedi was lazy at best, with Poe Dameron's line "Somehow, Palpatine returned" serving as the movie's only attempt to fill in the blanks.

Clearly, writers Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams found it difficult to come up with a decent explanation, and that's probably because Palpatine was never intended to return from the grave - despite what Kathleen Kennedy might tell you.

As per actor Ian McDiarmid, George Lucas actually shot down the idea of a Palpatine return while making Episode VI, bluntly telling McDiarmid "No, he’s dead."

In addition, Colin Trevorrow - who was originally attached to direct The Rise of Skywalker - has said that bringing back Palpatine was "something I never considered", meaning that the Sith Lord's comeback wasn't added until Abrams and Terrio boarded the project in 2017.

Retconning Palpatine's death then forced The Rise of Skywalker to retcon Snoke's entire character. In the first two movies, he was clearly meant to be someone new, with a mysterious agenda of his own - not a puppet grown in a jar.