50 Fun Facts About Emperor Palpatine

What first name was Palpatine given in the 2014 novel Tarkin?

Sheev arrived 31 years after Return of the Jedi: the original films call him only the Emperor, and nobody says the name Palpatine on screen until The Phantom Menace.

The Emperor lures the Rebel fleet into a trap above which moon in Return of the Jedi?

Endor. The Emperor boasts to Luke that he leaked the second Death Star's location himself, so the Rebel fleet would arrive to find its shield still up and an Imperial armada waiting.

Palpatine's threat of revenge, cited in The Rise of Skywalker's opening crawl, was first heard in which video game?

Fortnite. The crawl opens 'The dead speak!' and mentions a mysterious broadcast, but the film never plays it: the message aired only at the end of a live in-game event days before release.

Who delivers the much-mocked line 'Somehow, Palpatine returned' in The Rise of Skywalker?

Poe Dameron. Oscar Isaac's line became a meme: the film itself adds only a passing mention of cloning and Sith secrets, and later series were left to fill in how the Emperor survived.

Who voiced the Emperor in the original 1980 version of his hologram scene?

Clive Revill's performance lasted 24 years: for the 2004 DVD the scene was reshot with Ian McDiarmid during the making of Revenge of the Sith, with new dialogue, so the Emperor matched the prequels.

Whose eyes were superimposed into the 1980 Emperor's darkened eye sockets?

A chimpanzee's eyes were composited onto the face of an actress in a sculpted mask, and a male actor dubbed the voice: the first on-screen Emperor was three performers in one.

In the 2008 Clone Wars film, Palpatine's scheme turns on the kidnapping of which crime lord's son?

Jabba the Hutt. The Separatists frame the Jedi for snatching his baby son Rotta, but Anakin and Ahsoka bring the child home, and Jabba opens Hutt hyperspace routes to the Republic.

Where did the name Palpatine first appear?

The 1976 Star Wars novelization went on sale months before the film; its prologue has Senator Palpatine make himself Emperor, only to end up controlled by his own aides.

Which earlier fictional tyrant did George Lucas use as a model for the Emperor?

Ming the Merciless is the tyrant of Flash Gordon, the serial George Lucas first tried to license; when he couldn't get the rights, he wrote his own space saga instead.

Which US president's tenure got Lucas thinking about how democracies become dictatorships?

Richard Nixon. Lucas concluded that democracies 'aren't overthrown; they're given away', the idea the prequels play out when the Senate hands Palpatine his emergency powers.

Star Wars and History compares Palpatine's rise to which Roman emperor?

Augustus kept up the facade of a free republic centred on the Senate while commanding the army himself, much as Palpatine swears to hand back emergency powers he means to keep.

After Luke defeats Vader in Return of the Jedi, what does the Emperor urge him to do?

Kill Vader and take his place: the Emperor had meant all along to swap his apprentice for a younger one, but Luke refuses and declares himself a Jedi instead.

Ian McDiarmid won the Emperor role after a casting director saw him play a dying figure modelled on which tycoon?

Howard Hughes. McDiarmid, still in his thirties, was playing a dying Hughes figure in Sam Shepard's Seduced at London's Royal Court, and he never auditioned for the Emperor: he was simply called in for an interview.

Ian McDiarmid became the Emperor only after Alan Webb, the actor first cast, did what?

Fell ill and withdrew: Alan Webb dropped out as shooting neared, Ben Kingsley was among the names considered, and McDiarmid was drafted in as a late substitute.

Critic Robin Wood likened the Emperor's Return of the Jedi look to the hag in which Disney film?

Snow White. Wood saw the Queen's crone disguise in the hooded, wizened Emperor, a face that stayed unexplained for 22 years until Revenge of the Sith showed him disfigured on screen.

Roger Ebert wrote that the Emperor looked uncannily like Death in which film?

The Seventh Seal. In Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film a knight home from the Crusades challenges Death to a game of chess to delay his own end, and Ebert saw that figure again under the Emperor's hood.

How do Palpatine's costumes change during Revenge of the Sith?

Darker, and more ornate too: designer Trisha Biggar took his six costumes through greys and browns 'almost going to black' to carry him toward the dark side, and Ian McDiarmid's favourite was a high-collared jacket that felt reptilian.

McDiarmid compared Palpatine's hypocrisy to which Shakespeare villain?

Iago. McDiarmid's point was that everyone in Othello, the hero included, takes 'Honest Iago' for a decent man doing his job, just as the Republic trusts its kindly Chancellor.

A 2017 screenshot of Palpatine captioned 'The Senate' became the most-upvoted post on which website?

Reddit. The caption asked for upvotes so that Googling 'The Senate' would bring up Palpatine's face, and hundreds of thousands of upvotes arrived.

In Star Wars (1977), who announces that the Emperor has dissolved the Imperial Senate?

Grand Moff Tarkin. Asked how the Emperor can keep control without the bureaucracy, he has the answer ready: regional governors, and 'fear of this battle station'.

How does the Emperor die in Return of the Jedi?

Vader throws him down a shaft: unable to watch his son being tortured with Force lightning, he turns on his master at last, and is fatally wounded doing it.

In The Phantom Menace, Palpatine is a senator from which planet?

Naboo. Palpatine secretly arranges the invasion of his own home world, then persuades its young queen to call the no-confidence vote that clears his path to the Chancellorship.

Which Supreme Chancellor is ousted by the vote of no confidence Palpatine engineers?

Finis Valorum, played by Terence Stamp, never sees it coming: Palpatine talks Queen Amidala into calling the vote, then uses the crisis to get himself elected to the empty chair.

What does Palpatine tell young Anakin as The Phantom Menace ends?

'We will watch your career with great interest' sounds kindly and plays as a threat in hindsight: the newly elected Chancellor is already sizing up the boy he will turn into Darth Vader.

Who is Sidious's apprentice during Attack of the Clones?

Count Dooku, the fallen Jedi played by Christopher Lee, leads the Separatists in public and answers to his master in private, so one man is steering both sides of the coming war.

Who captures Palpatine at the start of Revenge of the Sith?

General Grievous. The cyborg commands a droid army that Sidious himself set up, so the captive is secretly his captor's master, and he ends the rescue by urging Anakin to kill a beaten enemy.

Palpatine tells Anakin the tragedy of which Sith Lord who could create life and prevent death?

Darth Plagueis. The tale ends with the Sith Lord murdered in his sleep by his own apprentice, and the storyteller is quietly confessing: that apprentice was Palpatine himself.

Who deflects Palpatine's lightning back into his face, leaving it disfigured?

Mace Windu. Three other Jedi Masters fall within seconds, yet Windu has Palpatine beaten until Anakin steps in to save the one man who claims he can keep Padme from dying.

What command compels the clone troopers to kill their Jedi generals?

Order 66. The clones never choose to obey: The Clone Wars later revealed inhibitor chips implanted in their brains, and showed Sidious silencing the trooper Fives when he found out.

Who duels Palpatine to a stalemate after the Empire is declared?

Yoda. Their duel tears through the Senate chamber itself, the Sith Lord hurling its floating pods at him, and it ends with the Jedi Master fleeing into exile.

On which Sith planet is the resurrected Palpatine found in The Rise of Skywalker?

Exegol. Kylo Ren needs a Sith wayfinder just to reach it, and what he finds there is a half-dead Emperor kept going by machinery, with a hidden fleet to offer him.

In The Rise of Skywalker, what does Palpatine demand of Rey so that his spirit can possess her?

Strike him down in anger: the Emperor's last plan depends on being murdered by his own granddaughter, but Rey refuses and faces him beside the redeemed Ben Solo instead.

Which First Order leader does Palpatine reveal he created as a puppet?

Snoke was a manufactured front: Palpatine made him to rule the First Order and to lure Ben Solo to the dark side, so the trilogy's first great villain had been a puppet all along.

What name does Palpatine give his armada of superlaser-equipped Star Destroyers?

The Final Order. One of its Star Destroyers destroys the planet Kijimi on its own, and Palpatine offers the whole fleet to Kylo Ren on a single condition: that he find and kill Rey.

Which assassin kills Rey's parents on Palpatine's orders?

Ochi was sent to find the young Rey; her parents hid her and he killed them without ever finding the girl. Years later she comes across his bones, his ship and his dagger.

With what does Rey deflect Palpatine's lightning to finally destroy him?

Two Skywalker lightsabers, Luke's and Leia's: with the spirits of past Jedi lending her their strength, Rey turns the Emperor's lightning back on him.

Who voiced Palpatine in The Clone Wars from 2008 until his death in 2012?

Ian Abercrombie, best known as Elaine's boss on Seinfeld, voiced both the kindly Chancellor and his hooded alter ego; his death in January 2012 sent the crew on a long search for a new voice.

Which Rocky Horror star voiced Palpatine in The Clone Wars from 2012 to 2014?

Tim Curry, Rocky Horror's Dr. Frank-N-Furter, took over after the original voice actor died in 2012; the crew searched widely for someone who could stand beside the films' Emperor.

In The Clone Wars, which bounty hunter does Sidious hire to steal a holocron from the Jedi Temple?

Cad Bane. The holocron is only the key: it unlocks a crystal naming thousands of Force-sensitive children, whom Sidious wants taken to a secret facility of his own.

On Mandalore, Sidious kills which brother of his former apprentice Maul?

Savage Opress. Sidious travels to Mandalore in person, takes on both brothers at once and kills Savage, then keeps Maul alive under torture because he still has a use for him.

In Rebels, Palpatine covets a portal outside space and time being excavated on which planet?

Lothal. Palpatine calls the portal under its Jedi Temple 'a conduit between the living and the dead', but Ezra and Ahsoka slip out of his reach before he can step through.

In the Rebels finale, Palpatine's hologram tempts Ezra with a vision of whom?

His dead parents, alive again beyond a doorway offered by a kindly old man; Ezra almost walks through, then tears the illusion down and the hologram flickers to show the Emperor's real face.

In The Bad Batch season 3, Palpatine inspects clone experiments run under which codename?

Project Necromancer. The cloning work at Mount Tantiss uses children strong in the Force as test subjects, and it is the series' answer to how the Emperor can be alive again decades later.

Which 1990s comic series first resurrected Palpatine in a clone body?

Dark Empire. The reborn Emperor rules from the hidden world of Byss with a stock of spare clone bodies, until Luke and Leia turn his own Force storm back on him.

In Legends, which assassin trained as the Emperor's Hand goes on to marry Luke Skywalker?

Mara Jade. Introduced in Heir to the Empire, she begins the story haunted by the dead Emperor's last command, which was to kill the very man she ends up marrying.

Palpatine's Contingency ends with the Empire's last stand above which desert planet, still strewn with wrecked Star Destroyers?

Jakku. Palpatine had built a secret base there as a jumping-off point for the Unknown Regions, and the fleets that fought overhead left the wrecks Rey later picks over for parts.

In Battlefront II, the late Emperor's Operation: Cinder orders loyal Imperial forces to do what?

Devastate the Empire's own worlds: Palpatine held that an Empire unable to protect him should not outlive him, so messenger droids carried the order to loyal officers once he was dead.

Palpatine never appears in which series, though his crackdown after the Aldhani heist drives its plot?

Andor. The Emperor stays off screen for both seasons, yet his orders set the plot moving, and Mon Mothma finally calls him a monster from the floor of his own Senate.

What fabric distinguishes the rejuvenated Emperor's robe at the end of The Rise of Skywalker?

Red velvet. Costume designer Michael Kaplan kept him in a plain black robe for most of the film and saved what he called 'his true emperor's garb' for the moment he restores his body.

How is Palpatine present in The Force Awakens?

His voice in Rey's vision: when she touches Luke's old lightsaber, an uncredited scrap of archive audio is mixed in among the voices she hears, planted four years before the Emperor's return.