10 Star Wars Characters That Came Back From The Dead (And How)

Possibly the most controversial resurrection is that of Emperor Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker. Unfortunately, the film doesn't bother to explicitly explain how the Sith Lord managed to cheat death, with characters having to theorise about the matter instead.

Once learning about the Emperor's return, Resistance historian, Beaumont, suggested that Palpatine was cloned through dark science, which turned out to be true. After perishing onboard the second Death Star, Palpatine's spirit was transferred into a clone body on Exegol, but because of his sheer power, the body deteriorated, leading to his cult followers continuing to create imperfect clones to harbour the Emperor's spirit. As well as his clones, the cultists also produced Snoke, a genetic strandcast, to rule over the First Order whilst Palpatine prepared his Final Order fleet to retake the galaxy.

When fans learnt that the Emperor had survived, many weren't exactly thrilled. One of the big criticisms was that having the Sith Lord live past his death at Endor completely undermined the first six movies, and the overarching idea that Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One, and negated his sacrifice, which certainly isn't wrong.

Still, at least it was good to see Ian McDirmid having a great time as the cackling villain one last time.