Emperor Palpatine Actor Ian McDiarmid Reacts to ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Trailer

The trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX, known now as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, was released online Friday afternoon following its debut at Celebration in Chicago. Full of exciting action, cryptic teases, and tear-jerking reunions, this teaser trailer met or exceeded the expectations of every fan watching. However, there was one moment in the final seconds of the trailer that completely blew everyone away. As the trailer came to a close, it was revealed that the evil Emperor Palpatine was returning to the franchise.

Palpatine’s return was reinforced after the trailer had ended, as actor Ian McDiarmid took the stage and the crowd roared. In his best Palpatine voice, McDiarmid demanded for the trailer to be played one more time. It was later confirmed by director J.J. Abrams that Palpatine was indeed in the film. Once the frenzy had settled down a bit, McDiarmid took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the new trailer, while also talking a little trash to the good guys of Star Wars.

“The dark side is stronger than ever,” McDiarmid wrote in a tweet about the trailer.

This could be taken to mean many things. Most likely, this is just an actor having fun with a fandom that he has been away from for some time, playing up his iconic villain role. Then again, there could be a little more to this tweet than meets the eye. Perhaps there are more Force users left in the world than we thought at the end of The Last Jedi, and that Kylo Ren’s numbers have grown significantly.

McDiarmid was a Star Wars mainstay through the first two trilogies, showing both the rise and fall of the powerful Senator/Emporer/Lord Palpatine. However, since he was seemingly killed at the end of Return of the Jedi, he had not been included in the latest trilogy. That’s apparently about to change when December rolls around.

What do you think about the Emperor’s return to Star Wars? Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let us know in the comments below!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters this December.

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