Star Wars: 8 Ways The Rise Of Skywalker Sets Up Episode 10

Palpatine is the only villainous character who's appeared in every single Star Wars trilogy. In the prequels, he was shown to be cunning and patient; in the original trilogy, he was shown to have immense power and influence; and in the sequels, he was shown to be determined, at any cost, to let the Dark Side reign supreme.

In short, he's one of the smartest, most ruthless people in the entire galaxy, and so, it wouldn't be shocking to learn that he had some sort of contingency plan in place should his efforts in The Rise of Skywalker fall flat. Which they did.

So what could that backup plan be? Well, drawing from his latest film appearance specifically, there's one huge detail that would make it easy for Episode X to bring back ol' Palpy for another round in the ring: cloning.

One of the very first things we see in The Rise of Skywalker is some glass tubes containing clones of Supreme Leader Snoke, which were created by Palpatine to act as his puppets. So, what if Palpatine also cloned himself, and hid these copies at different locations around the galaxy? That way, even if one, two or three of his bodies were destroyed, he could always have another one tucked away ready to go.

Admittedly, cloning is a bit of a cheap trick (and Palpatine should really stay dead at this point), but since we know it exists in the Star Wars universe - and since Palpatine has knowledge of it - it would be an easy way for him to make a return in Episode X.