
The writer of Dark Empire himself, Tom Veitch, has taken these comparisons in good humor, joking that he feels glad to have (paraphrasing) "basically created the plot of a future billion-dollar movie." And the film proper confirms that his plan involved cloning and spiritual transfer, with the novelization confirming Palpatine to be a clone. This was followed by confirmation that Ian McDiarmid would be returning to his role as Palpatine in the film. On April 12th, 2019, the trailer for Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker was released, and Palpatine is heard laughing at the end of the trailer.

The Emperor being brought back from the dead has always been a contentious issue within the Star Wars fandom.In Revenge of the Sith, we see Palpatine took down three easily, and was only beaten by Mace Windu (which is implied to be a ploy) so Anakin would side with him. The reborn Palpatine, on beating Luke in a lightsaber duel, mocked him by asking whether his Force abilities revealed how many other "so-called" Jedi Masters tried to kill him.

The Phantom Menace also showed him having it before he went gray (both may have been based on actor Ian McDiarmid's natural hair color). Palpatine in younger form is shown to have red hair.Twenty eight years later he would proclaim himself to be ALL of the Sith in The Rise of Skywalker. Thirteen years before Palpatine uttered " I AM the Senate," and it soared to memetic heights, he goes higher, proclaiming himself to be the Dark Side personified.then the Executor's length was corrected to 19 kilometers, finally bowing to years of fan scaling, and making the Eclipse a bit shorter (if much beefier) than its film counterpart. Some considered this an attempt on the writer's part to one-up the films.

