Star Wars actor thinks Palpatine may return. Somehow.
The actor told a Spacecon panel he doesn’t believe the Emperor really died in The Rise of Skywalker -- then contradicted himself a few minutes later. There are no actual plans. For now.
“Somehow, Palpatine returned.”
That line — six years old and still getting dunked on — was Poe Dameron‘s, courtesy of Oscar Isaac, in 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And there’s a chance we could hear something like it again.
The source this time? The Emperor himself.
What Ian McDiarmid actually said at the panel
At a Spacecon panel in San Antonio this month, Ian McDiarmid got asked about the Emperor’s fate. His answer did not exactly settle the matter.
“I had no idea that I wasn’t dead,” McDiarmid said about Palpatine’s surprise Rise of Skywalker comeback. “So, it’s been a journey. But I think I’m dead now, but don’t quote me.”
Then, a little later in the same panel, he turned around and said the opposite: “I don’t believe he’s dead.”
So the official position from the man who has played the character since 1983 is, and I’m being precise here, both.
Palpatine has died at least four times already
Here’s why nobody’s treating “Palpatine might not be dead” as a wild claim.
The guy will not stay down. Darth Vader chucked him down a Death Star reactor shaft in Return of the Jedi, and that held for about eight years.
Then the 1991 Dark Horse comic Dark Empire brought him back in a cloned body. Luke and Leia put him down again. Dark Empire II un-did that. Empire’s End finally finished the job — in the old Legends continuity, anyway.
And then 2019 rolled around, Lucasfilm said “somehow,” and he was back on the big screen disintegrating Rey’s way instead. For a character whose whole brand is refusing to die, an actor saying “I don’t believe he’s dead” is less a bombshell and more a weather report.
Why a vague convention quote becomes a headline
Let’s be clear about what this is. An 81-year-old actor speculated at a fan Q&A. Lucasfilm has announced nothing. There is no project, no script, no “Palpatine returns” press release.
But it travels because the wound’s still open. The Rise of Skywalker resurrecting the Emperor with a one-word explanation is the exact creative move a big chunk of the fanbase points to when they say the sequel trilogy lost the plot. “Somehow” became shorthand for writing yourself out of a corner.
So when McDiarmid shrugs and says maybe the old man’s still out there, fans don’t hear a fun tease. They hear the thing they’re afraid Lucasfilm will actually do again.
There are a pile of Star Wars projects in development right now. None of them have been announced as starring Palpatine. If that changes, you already know the line that’s getting quoted — and Oscar Isaac is welcome to phone it in one more time.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Popverse (June 16, 2026), Joshua Lapin-Bertone reporting, originating source for McDiarmid’s Spacecon panel quotes and the Empire’s death-history rundown
RosterCon, Comiconomicon, and CultureMap (2026), verified for Ian McDiarmid’s appearance at Spacecon San Antonio on June 12–14, 2026 — the actual date of the panel, which the originating coverage misprinted as 2016