The new teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker features quite the surprise: as the trailer comes to a close, the screen cuts to black and our ears are filled with the cackling of Emperor Palpatine. It’s a laugh cold enough to send shivers down your spine and a character inclusion crazy enough to make your head spin. He met his electrifying end in Return of the Jedi, after all. IGN talked to director and co-writer JJ Abrams at Star Wars Celebration Chicago about how the iconic villain came to be a part of the film, and his answer included a meeting with the Maker himself, George Lucas.
“This movie had a very, very specific challenge, which was to take eight films and give an ending to three trilogies, and so we had to look at, what is the bigger story? We had conversations amongst ourselves, we met with George Lucas before writing the script,” Abrams revealed. “These were things that were in real, not debate, but looking at the vastness of the story and trying to figure out, what is the way to conclude this? But it has to work on its own as a movie, it has to be its own thing, it has to be surprising and funny and you have to understand it.”
Check out Abrams’ full response by watching the video above.
Months ago it was rumored that Lucas was being consulted for Episode 9 to help make it a satisfying conclusion to the saga that he started, so now Abrams has confirmed that involvement. Abrams didn’t specifically cite Lucas as the person who came up with the idea to put Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker, but given that Abrams brought up Lucas while discussing the fallen Emperor, it may well have been him.
In the original trilogy, Lucas presented Palpatine as the powerful boss who commanded Darth Vader while lurking in the shadows before trying to lure Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side in a plan that literally blew up in his face. Lucas then used the prequel trilogy to show the Sith Lord’s origin, including his rise to power and transformation into the lightning-blasting despot. With Palpatine being a major figure in nearly all of Lucas’s Star Wars films, it makes sense why it’d be appropriate to include him in the final chapter of the whole saga.
IGN also talked to Oscar Isaac about taking up a leadership role in the Resistance now that, as he says, “Leia is gone.” The film will be released in theaters on December 20, 2019, and Abrams discussed a bit about how they “built scenes around” Carrie Fisher’s unused footage for the film and that this newest entry in the Skywalker Saga does not pick up immediately after The Last Jedi.
Watch the new teaser below:
Joshua is Senior Editor of IGN Comics. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
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