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

Maybe the most likely of all the options, as its existence has already been officially canonically confirmed.

As detailed in comics like Shattered Empire, books like Aftermath: Empire’s End, and even games like Battlefront II, the Emperor made proficient use of Sentinel Droids within the Empire. This was a specially designed messenger droid which was given a designated message or series of messages to carry out, with Palpatine’s face and voice uploaded before his death.

In previous iterations, this was mostly used to communicate key orders to high-ranking Empire officials after his death. Thus, Rey and co. may just run into one of these Sentinel Droids and discover that there’s perhaps a bit more of Palpatine still within it than anticipated.

This would be a really unexpected way to bring Palpatine back, as he wouldn’t actually be alive again but it would still allow McDiarmid the chance to do what he does best - chew some scenery as the all-powerful Sith Lord.