Ian McDiarmid surprised by Emperor Palpatine's return in 'Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker': 'I thought I was dead'
'Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker' might be getting slammed by critics and putting up a poor show at the box office, but that's not stopping the cast and crew from coming up with new revelations every day. While director JJ Abrams insists that the kiss between Kylo Ren and Rey was more of a sibling kiss rather than a romantic one, Ian McDiarmid, who played the role of Palpatine, revealed that he was surprised that the director wanted him to play the dead Emperor in the finale of the Skywalker saga.
Palpatine's death had been confirmed decades before by George Lucas who said the Sith Lord had died on Death Star II in 'Return of The Jedi', at the hands of Anakin Skywalker, who had sacrificed himself to save his son Luke.
“I thought I was dead! I thought he was dead,” McDiarmid told Digital Spy. “Because when we did Return of the Jedi, and I was thrown down that shoot to Galactic Hell, And I said, ‘Oh, does he come back?’ And [George] said, ‘No, he’s dead.' So I just accepted that. But then, of course, I didn’t know I was going to be doing the prequels, so in a sense he wasn’t dead, because we went back to revisit him when he was a young man. But I was totally surprised by this."
McDiarmid had earlier revealed that he had been approached by Abrams via email, where the director had requested to pitch his involvement in 'Rise Of Skywalker'. McDiarmid said his voice 'shot up' in surprise when he was invited back, before telling Abrams the idea was 'wonderful'.
'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker', starring Daisey Ridley, John Boyega and Adam Driver, released in theaters on December 20.