Star Wars: What Went Wrong With Palpatine’s Rise of Skywalker Return

Here’s what went wrong with Emperor Palpatine’s return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It’s no secret by now The Rise of Skywalker proved to be a divisive film, opening to mixed reviews when it originally premiered last December. The film had a tall order, looking to end the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the entire Skywalker saga. Director J.J. Abrams knew going in that he wouldn’t be able to please all Star Wars fans, but even he probably didn’t foresee The Rise of Skywalker netting the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score for a live-action Star Wars movie. The backlash hit Daisy Ridley pretty hard, with the actress admitting, “January was not that nice.”

At the center of Rise of Skywalker criticisms, unfortunately, was Palpatine. Viewers were hopeful the classic villain would have a triumphant comeback in the grand finale, but his role ended up being muddled and came across as random. Lucasfilm had to use tie-in publications like the official Rise of Skywalker novelization to answer lingering questions fans had after seeing the movie. After months of hype and anticipation, Palpatine’s return was largely a disappointment.

Making matters worse is that it wasn’t just Palpatine himself that was a letdown. Being an underwritten villain in the final installment of the Skywalker saga is bad enough, but Palpatine’s connection to The Rise of Skywalker’s main characters arguably dragged the movie’s story down and just made things even more frustrating. Here, we take a look at all that went wrong with Palpatine’s return.

Palpatine’s Rise of Skywalker Return Was Exciting When Announced

To understand why viewers felt Palpatine in Rise of Skywalker was disappointing, one has to go back to April 2019. The first Rise of Skywalker trailer debuted at Star Wars Celebration Chicago, ending with the iconic sound of the Emperor’s sinister laugh. Prior to that, Palpatine’s return was kept a secret, so the reveal came as a massive surprise that brought the house down. Even those who took issue with The Rise of Skywalker probably still look fondly on Ian McDiarmid walking out on the Celebration stage and saying, “Roll it again.” It was a great moment and a definite highlight of the convention.

What was cool about Palpatine coming back is that he became the thread that tied the entire saga together. After serving as the primary antagonist for the original six films, Palpatine (seemingly) didn’t have a presence in The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi. Having him return in The Rise of Skywalker read as a clever way to narratively connect the sequel trilogy to what had come before, making the Emperor the overarching big bad across all nine movies. Fans spent several months devising intricate theories about Palpatine, speculating how he stayed hidden in the years since Return of the Jedi, that he and Dark Rey were one and the same, and more. The Emperor was a buzz-worthy topic, especially since he was minimized in marketing, but all the hype didn’t pay off.

The Rise of Skywalker Failed To Explain Palpatine’s Return

One of the reasons why Rise of Skywalker’s Palpatine twist struggled to deliver on its promise is because the film barely spends any time explaining how the Emperor came back. There’s lip service paid to Revenge of the Sith’s Darth Plagueis scene, and Poe Dameron utters the now-infamous line, “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” The specifics of Palpatine’s survival are treated as an afterthought. On one hand, that’s fitting with Star Wars’ in media res tradition of throwing the audience into the middle of a story and trusting them to keep up. After all, A New Hope began with the Galactic Civil War already underway and The Force Awakens kicked off with the First Order fully-formed. Opening text crawl hand-waving has always been a part of Star Wars.

But in this case, an argument can be made additional details might have helped the film. Information covered in the books, such as Rise of Skywalker’s Palpatine being a clone and Rey’s father being a failed Palpatine clone, comes across as vital to understanding the movie’s story. Star Wars movie novelizations have always included extra nuggets for fans to check out, but they’re typically supplemental that don’t fundamentally alter the film. That there’s so much about Palpatine revealed in the Rise of Skywalker tie-in books indicates Disney knew they got it wrong in the movie. It’s unknown how much of this was planned ahead of time (Abrams did want to have a clone Palpatine in Force Awakens), but it does feel like the books are scrambling to course-correct some of the lingering problems with The Rise of Skywalker. Palpatine was so ill-defined onscreen, fans had to turn to the page to put all the pieces together.

Palpatine Ended Up Making Rise of Skywalker’s Story Worse

Perhaps the biggest revelation in The Rise of Skywalker is that Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter, making her part of a legacy bloodline. Some viewers, particularly those who enjoyed The Last Jedi’s handling of Rey’s lineage, found this to be very problematic. Not only did it clash with the themes Last Jedi was going for, it’s also a poorly executed concept. It lacks the gravitas and weight of The Empire Strikes Back’s Darth Vader twist (which Rey Palpatine is clearly trying to emulate) because prior to The Rise of Skywalker, there was no connection between Rey and Palpatine present. What made Empire’s twist so great is Luke believed Vader had killed his father, only to discover the man he looked up to was ultimate evil. It forced him to reevaluate everything and change his personal mission. Rey’s goal in The Rise of Skywalker before and after the granddaughter twist is to defeat Palpatine. It doesn’t add anything to the story and provides a watered down explanation for Rey’s immense Force powers.

Palpatine also gets in the way of the sequel trilogy’s most compelling dynamic: Rey and Kylo Ren. After The Last Jedi shockingly killed Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo seemed poised to become the sequel trilogy’s main villain, with the third film exploring his further descent into darkness. Instead, Abrams replaced the sequels’ Palpatine surrogate with the actual Palpatine, undercutting the Rey/Kylo relationship in the process. While it was somewhat interesting to learn Palpatine was behind Ben Solo’s corruption and had created Snoke as a puppet, it essentially put Kylo in a holding pattern until his redemption. Rather than unleashing his full fury as the new Supreme Leader, Kylo was working against another dark side master, plotting a way to defeat Palpatine. Ultimately, the Emperor was a bland villain for Rey and Ben to team up against, when there might have been a more compelling way to take the story.

Palpatine’s Return is A Symptom of Disney’s Sequel Trilogy Problems

One of the main criticisms lobbied against Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker is his role feels forced and random. This is primarily because there’s a lack of clear setup in the previous two films. If there were teases about Palpatine in Force Awakens and Last Jedi, his return in Rise of Skywalker probably would have worked better since that’d be the culmination to something years in the making. In retrospect, Abrams should have included Palpatine in Force Awakens, laying the groundwork for the trilogy and its main conflict. It would have been similar to how Marvel gradually teased Thanos over the course of the Infinity Saga, building up to his coming out party in Avengers: Infinity War. Abrams loves his mystery boxes, but this is an instance where transparency would have helped.

It’s become apparent over time there was no clear plan in place for the sequel trilogy. After all, Colin Trevorrow’s original Star Wars 9, Duel of the Fates, did not have Palpatine at all. There is something to be said in favor of giving directors maximum creative freedom on massive franchise films. In a way, it was refreshing Rian Johnson didn’t have preconceived plot points he had to include in The Last Jedi. The downside to that approach is what happened in The Rise of Skywalker. From the sound of things, Abrams always wanted Palpatine to be part of the sequel trilogy, so when he was given the keys to the third film, he tried to shoehorn it in and make it work to the best of his ability with the previous movies. Unfortunately, there are times when The Rise of Skywalker appears to be at odds at bit with The Last Jedi, and Palpatine is at the center of that. On-paper, having him in the sequel trilogy was fascinating, but it wasn’t executed in the greatest way.

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Chris Agar
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Chris Agar is a news editor for Screen Rant, also writing features and movie reviews for the site as one of Screen Rant’s Rotten Tomatoes approved critics. He is a graduate of Wesley College’s Bachelor of Media Arts and Master of Sport Leadership programs. In 2013, Chris was hired to write weekly box office prediction posts in conjunction with the Screen Rant Underground podcast’s Box Office Battle game and his role expanded over the next few years. In addition to covering the latest news and hottest movie topics daily, Chris has attended numerous media events for Screen Rant, including San Diego Comic-Con, delivering content his readers care about. He credits Star Wars and Toy Story with launching a lifelong fascination with movies that led to his career, and now he has a wide range of cinematic tastes, enjoying the latest Hollywood blockbusters, Oscar contenders, and everything in between. Chris’ favorite film genres include sci-fi/fantasy, crime, action, and drama.

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