Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker promises to deliver the saga to its definitive end, and what better way to conclude everything than to bring back Emperor Palpatine, the ultimate baddie of the Star Wars canon?
When we first learned about the return of Palpatine, fans couldn’t help containing their excitement for the sheer awesomeness of Ian McDiarmid once again coming back as their favorite dark lord. We’re still unsure as to the extent of his presence in the film, but we know that he’ll play a vital role in bringing the Skywalker Saga full circle.
At first, some fans speculated that Palpatine will only appear as a hologram or a cameo, but the final trailer for The Rise of Skywalker suggested his return as the main antagonist of the film. On top of that, a leaked image confirmed that we’ll witness the proper return of Darth Sidious in full force. Now, an alleged leak circulating online explains how he might return and how he can be destroyed once and for all.
The new leak suggests that killing Palpatine is not enough, as his force spirit can always find a way to come back. In the movie’s climactic sequence, Rey and Kylo Ren will apparently engage Palpatine, who’s growing more and more powerful. They manage to overpower him, but in order to prevent the cycle from happening again, the ghosts of Anakin and Luke appear to defeat his spirit on the other side.
This might be an interesting way to conclude the Skywalker Saga. Emperor Palpatine was the main villain of both the original and prequel trilogies, so it’d make sense to bring him back in the last movie to wrap things up. But the most exciting bit about this leak is Anakin and Luke teaming up to destroy their ancient enemy, which could explain The Rise of Skywalker as the title for the film.
Whether this leak is accurate or not is difficult to determine, but readers should ultimately take it with a grain of salt. One way or another, though, we’ll find out the answers when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th.