Is Matt Smith Actually In Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker?

Even before this particular development, there were rumblings that Palpatine could make his grand cinematic return in The Rise of Skywalker, but this was the first we'd heard about an actor actually stepping into the character's evil, iconic shoes.

It was YouTube's Mr. Sunday Movies who dropped this scoop, revealing that one of his sources had told him that Smith was set to play a young Sheev Palpatine in the film. He also noted that this should be taken as a rumour, because even his source had some uncertainty about the whole thing.

Nonetheless, it was a juicy development, and added even more fuel to those aforementioned rumblings. Smith's pale, gaunt look would be a perfect fit for a younger Palpatine, and since, at this stage, we had no other information about his character, the internet quickly latched on to this idea.