Summary
- Palpatine's return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was controversial, but it has since been developed in various forms of media, such as comics, books, and TV shows.
- The novel Bloodline dropped a hint in 2016 about Palpatine's knowledge and fear of cloning, shedding light on his secret plans.
- The idea of Palpatine's return in a clone body was not new and may have been planned by J.J. Abrams during the production of the sequel trilogy, drawing inspiration from previous Star Wars works.
Star Wars made the bold decision to bring back Emperor Palpatine in the final installment of the Skywalker saga, Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker – but the idea may have been hinted at years earlier. Palpatine's return from the dead was a controversial creative choice, and its ramifications on the plot of not only the sequel Star Wars trilogy, but also the Skywalker saga as a whole have been huge. Some viewers enjoyed his reappearance, as it was brought upon by a Revenge of the Sith reference, but others detest it, claiming it came out of nowhere with no previous setup.
Palpatine's return has been fleshed out in many ways since the release of The Rise of Skywalker, in comics, books, and even Star Wars TV shows, with both The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian hinting at it heavily. All of these have to do with the Empire's, and its Remnants', interest in cloning technology. Whether through Doctor Pershing, Kaminoan secrets, or Moff Gideon himself, many roads lead to Poe Dameron's infamous "Somehow, Palpatine returned" having a much deeper meaning. Still, all of these setups came out after the film, with no previous hints towards Palpatine's cloned fate that were offered months or years before the release of The Rise of Skywalker – but a well-regarded canon Star Wars novel may have actually dropped a serious hint that went over many viewers' heads back in 2016.
