Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker marked the controversial return of Emperor Palpatine, and apparently, there was never any alternate story to his re-emergence. Directed and co-written (with Chris Terrio) by J.J. Abrams, the film is the final installment of the three-trilogy Skywalker saga. And to hammer that point down, the filmmakers decided to bring the iconic villain from the first two threequels.
It was during this year’s Star Wars Celebration in Chicago where it was revealed that Ian McDiarmid would reprise his role as the Emperor in The Rise of Skywalker. At that point, his involvement was still being kept tightly under wraps but people involved in the film repeatedly justified his return with Abrams pointing out he was a figure in previous films. With that in mind, The Rise of Skywalker finally explained how Darth Sidious fit in the sequel trilogy narrative - he’d been playing puppet master all along, and he’s the grandfather of Rey (Daisy Ridley).
In a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, The Rise of Skywalker’s Visual Effects Supervisor Patrick Tubach reveals that there’s no other footage filmed of Emperor Palpatine. While there may be a variation of shots, the narrative behind them remained the same in what fans saw in theaters.
This comment comes on the heels of the campaign for #ReleasetheJJCut (a play on Justice League’s Release the Snyder Cut movement), which demands for Disney and Lucasfilm to release Abrams’ supposed director’s version of the movie. It’s fueled by the reveal that there are some additional scenes that would’ve furthered explored Palpatine’s backstory. This tidbit came from The Rise of Skywalker editor Maryann Brandon, but what’s getting lost in the shuffle of news is that they decided to not include it because it’s supposedly things that the audience didn’t want to know. Sure, it was intriguing and it would’ve been nice to learn more about the Sith, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll make any narrative impact on his arc. Perhaps said scene could see the light of day when the movie becomes available on home media.
I don’t think there’s anything you haven’t really seen. J.J. would always shoot variations on scenes - that’s the natural moviemaking process. But to my knowledge there’s no alternative version [of Palpatine’s story]. We change camera angles, we change lighting, maybe there’s a dialogue variation. It’s just naturally what we do.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is already out and despite its divisive nature, whatever went down in it is now accepted in the franchise’s canon. Some people have varying problems with regard to the return of Emperor Palpatine - and its not simply because they don’t want to deal with a previously defeated foe again. Issues range from his poorly established return to his association with Rey. In any case, at least now he seems to be truly gone.
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Source: Yahoo! Entertainment
