20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

Emperor Palpatine's resurrection remains one of The Rise of Skywalker's most divisive plot points, and even Ian McDiarmid himself wasn't exactly sure about it, given the character's pretty concrete demise in Return of the Jedi. During an interview at the film's UK premiere, he said:

"I thought I was dead!... I thought he was dead. Because when we did Return of the Jedi, and I was thrown down that chute to Galactic Hell, he was dead. And I said, 'Oh, does he come back?' And [George Lucas] said, 'No, he's dead.' So I just accepted that. But then, of course, I didn't know I was going to be doing the prequels, so in a sense he wasn't dead, because we went back to revisit him when he was a young man. But I was totally surprised by this."

One can only imagine that a dump-truck full of cash quickly allayed any lingering doubts he might've had about returning.