Should Palpatine Return?

There have been rumors of late that one of the worst villains to ever come along in any franchise might be given a way back into the story at some point. But the question is: should Palpatine return to the Star Wars franchise? Another good question would be whether or not he was even taken out all the way in the first place. The fact that he’s had contingencies laid out in the comics, the novels, and even in the latest trilogy makes it clear that the emperor wasn’t a person that left anything to chance. Thinking that he might have left behind another contingency or two, or possibly three, is kind of easy since it would be keeping in line with his personality. But at one point or another, it would need to be recognized that his need to be as prepared as possible would become kind of a hindrance to the story rather than a boon since the continual retconning that would need to be done would continue to build until the overall continuity became threatened by the need to prove how smart Palpatine really is. 

But there might be a way to bring Palpatine back, without the continual use of clones and other machinations that might be aimed at galactic domination. It might be time to prove that a Sith ghost can exist in the Star Wars universe and that they can be more troublesome than they’re worth since, unlike a Jedi Force ghost, the Sith would be bound to wreak havoc and do whatever it took to assert their dominance in one way or another. With Palpatine, the long game would be the key since he doesn’t tend to do anything halfway and there’s always something more to his plans than anyone is allowed to see. But deciding where his spirit would reside, or if it would be different from other Force ghosts, would be kind of interesting to think about. But seeing him in the flesh again would probably be a bad idea since it would mean that the cloning process is still very much in effect. 

The current movies haven’t really gone into the cloning process that much apart from Rise of Skywalker, and the Force ghosts have been used sparingly. But seeing a Sith Force ghost would be kind of fun to utilize in a movie or even a TV show. But if Sheev Palpatine is to come back at some point it would be a hope that he might be seen in a movie that would be set sometime between the events of the original trilogy, or perhaps between the events of the most recent trilogy. There are a lot of stories that could be used to help flesh out the character of Palpatine, and there are several from the Legends canon that the Mouse House could make good use of, but it’s a question of whether or not they would see the sense and the use in them. The emperor has always been a seriously flawed but popular character in the Star Wars franchise, and there are a lot of people that might like to see him come back, but if such a thing is going to happen then it needs to be done correctly since otherwise it’s bound to become a bit silly. 

Palpatine’s story doesn’t feel as though it was told completely in the live-action movies, and it does sound as though Ian McDiarmid might be hinting at a return of some sort, but as of now, nothing appears to be set in stone. Thinking about Palpatine coming back is interesting since it brings up a lot of ideas that might work if they were applied in a way that would flow with the story rather than continue to challenge the belief of what has happened and what should happen in the story. There’s still a lot of room in the Star Wars universe for various stories about main characters and new ones that could be allowed to create stories that might capture the attention of the fans. There have already been a few that have done this, and it’s kind of inspiring really since it means that Star Wars is going to keep moving forward. 

It might take some time to come up with a legacy like that of the Skywalker story when it comes to keeping things alive for the coming decades. But Palpatine could continue to be one of the past elements that could help to keep things moving forward. But as it’s already been mentioned, the manner in which this is done needs to be handled with care, since otherwise, it’s fair to say that Palpatine could become another rogue element that might mess with the continuity in a big way. The biggest problem would be that the fans might not mind quite as much.