Star Wars actor Ian McDiarmid has defended the decision to bring back Emperor Palpatine for the final instalment of the Skywalker saga.
The Rise Of Skywalker proved to be among the most divisive of all the Star Wars films upon its release in 2019, with the Sith Lord’s shocking return – despite him seemingly meeting his demise in Return Of The Jedi – among fans’ many gripes.
“It was nice to know that I wasn’t dead. Well, he wouldn’t be, would he?” Ian said during a recent panel event, as reported by /Film.
“A lot of people said, ‘You can’t bring him back, he was dead! Did you see that fall? How could anyone survive that?’. Excuse me. He’s the Emperor of the Universe.”
He continued: “Anyway, nobody’s going to tell me he wouldn’t have had a Plan B, should someone – unlikely though he may have thought –manage to semi-destroy him.
“And of course he had the best operational ward team of surgeons, they were very small but they were very thorough, maybe you remember from the film. And he had the best that money could buy, that enforcement could produce. And he also had that marvelous galactic wheelchair, which was a huge advantage.”
According to /Film, Ian then revealed that his character was initially supposed to have looked “more worse for wear” in The Rise Of Skywalker, which would have made sense after what he’d been through.
However, these design plans – which apparently included “a bad arm and tubes coming out of his head” – were eventually scrapped in order to make “the sophisticated machinery keeping the Emperor together less visible”.
Since the most recent Star Wars trilogy came to an end, the franchise has begun a string of new TV spin-offs, which have been available to stream on Disney+.
As well as The Mandalorian and The Book Of Boba Fett, Ewan McGregor is currently taking the lead in a new show about Obi-Wan Kenobi, which launched on Friday.
It has also been announced that the next film released under the Star Wars umbrella will be helmed by Taika Waititi and hit cinemas in 2023.
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