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50 free Emperor Palpatine trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Before Ian McDiarmid, the Emperor was an elderly actress in heavy makeup with a chimpanzee's eyes composited into her sockets and Clive Revill's voice dubbed over the top. George Lucas built the character out of Ming the Merciless, Richard Nixon and a long list of real strongmen who were handed power rather than seizing it, which is why the prequels spend so long in the Senate. These 50 questions run from the 1974 draft's Cos Dashit to the rotting hands on Exegol. The easy tier covers Naboo, Darth Sidious, Order 66, the Death Star chasm and Rey. The middle asks about the original 1980 hologram, the Royal Court performance that got McDiarmid the job, Finis Valorum, the Plagueis story and The Clone Wars voice cast. The expert tier reaches for Trisha Biggar's reptile-skin jacket, the May Day parade staging, Gallius Rax, Byss and the US senator who brought a visual aid to the Senate floor. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation. Play it alone or print it for a Star Wars night. Do it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What first name was Palpatine given in the 2014 novel Tarkin?
Sheev
The original trilogy never spoke his surname either; the Return of the Jedi novelization supplied it.
Q 02What is Palpatine's Sith name?
Darth Sidious
The name was first used in the novelization of The Phantom Menace rather than on screen.
Q 03In which film did the Emperor first appear on screen?
The Empire Strikes Back
He is only mentioned in the first film, when Tarkin reveals he has dissolved the Imperial Senate.
Q 04Who physically portrayed the Emperor in the original 1980 hologram, under heavy makeup?
Marjorie Eaton
Rick Baker applied the makeup sculpted by Phil Tippett, after first testing it on his own wife Elaine.
Q 05Who voiced the Emperor in the original 1980 version of his hologram scene?
Clive Revill
The scene was reshot with McDiarmid for the 2004 DVD to match the prequels, and the dialogue was revised.
Q 06Whose eyes were superimposed into the 1980 Emperor's darkened eye sockets?
A chimpanzee's
Revill said the trick with Kershner was keeping the reins tight: the Emperor does not say much, so every word counts.
Q 07What was the name of the young Emperor in Lucas's 1974 draft of Star Wars?
Cos Dashit
Lucas's earliest notes described a whole line of corrupt emperors rather than a single one.
Q 08Where did the name Palpatine first appear?
The 1976 Star Wars novelization
Alan Dean Foster's ghostwritten prologue sketched the Emperor's rise to power a year before the film opened.
Q 09Which Flash Gordon villain inspired the Emperor?
Ming the Merciless
For Return of the Jedi the weak figurehead of early plans became a dark-side adept modelled on the comic-strip tyrant.
Q 10Which US president's tenure got Lucas thinking about how democracies become dictatorships?
Richard Nixon
Lucas's conclusion: democracies are not overthrown, they are given away, which became the spine of the prequels.
Q 11Star Wars and History compares Palpatine's rise to which Roman emperor?
Augustus
Both blamed a corrupt Senate, demanded emergency powers they promised to return, and leaned on control of the army.
Q 12Lucas wanted the Emperor's Death Star arrival in Return of the Jedi to resemble what?
May Day parades in Russia
Kasdan saw the film's climax as a confrontation between Vader and the master who intimidates him.
Q 13A casting director spotted McDiarmid playing which dying tycoon in Sam Shepard's Seduced?
Howard Hughes
He never auditioned for Palpatine and said he never had his sights set on a film career at all.
Q 21How does the Emperor die in Return of the Jedi?
Vader throws him down a shaft
Lucas said had he known how popular the character would be, he would have made the death more exciting.
Q 22In The Phantom Menace, Palpatine is a senator from which planet?
Naboo
It is also the home world of Padmé Amidala, whom he manipulates into toppling the sitting Chancellor.
Q 23Which Supreme Chancellor is ousted by the vote of no confidence Palpatine engineers?
Finis Valorum
Terence Stamp plays him; Palpatine then rides the Naboo crisis into the Chancellorship himself.
Q 14Why did Lucas and Marquand initially plan to dub over McDiarmid's voice?
He was far younger than the character
They reversed course once they heard his distinctive delivery; he went straight back to the London stage afterwards.
Q 15How long did the Return of the Jedi makeup take to apply?
Two to four hours
Robin Wood compared the result to the hag in Snow White; Ebert reached for Death in The Seventh Seal.
Q 16Roger Ebert wrote that the Emperor looked uncannily like Death in which film?
The Seventh Seal
McDiarmid himself thought of Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera when his face changes in Revenge of the Sith.
Q 17Who designed Palpatine's progressively darker prequel wardrobe?
Trisha Biggar
McDiarmid's favourite piece was a high-collared jacket that felt reptilian, which he thought exactly right.
Q 18McDiarmid compared Palpatine's hypocrisy to which Shakespeare villain?
Iago
He described playing a character of solid blackness whose only motivation is the accumulation of power.
Q 19How old was McDiarmid when he took fencing lessons for Revenge of the Sith?
60
He performed the close-ups of the Windu duel himself and left the acrobatics to stunt doubles.
Q 20In Star Wars (1977), who announces that the Emperor has dissolved the Imperial Senate?
Grand Moff Tarkin
Peter Cushing's line is the only trace of the Emperor in the first film.
Q 24What does Palpatine tell the nine-year-old Anakin at the end of The Phantom Menace?
We will watch your career with great interest
Lucas said the film's job for Palpatine was to explain how Anakin came to be his apprentice.
Q 25Who is Sidious's apprentice during Attack of the Clones?
Count Dooku
Christopher Lee's Separatist leader delivers the secret Death Star plans to his master as the Clone Wars begin.
Q 26Who captures Palpatine at the start of Revenge of the Sith?
General Grievous
The rescue ends with Palpatine ordering Anakin to behead the disarmed Dooku, which he does after a moment's hesitation.
Q 27Palpatine tells Anakin the tragedy of which Sith Lord who could create life and prevent death?
Darth Plagueis
Legends later made that Sith Palpatine's own master, killed by his apprentice in his sleep.
Q 28Who deflects Palpatine's lightning back into his face, leaving it disfigured?
Mace Windu
Samuel L. Jackson's Jedi had already seen three other Masters cut down in seconds when he arrived to arrest the Chancellor.
Q 29What command compels the clone troopers to kill their Jedi generals?
Order 66
The Clone Wars later showed Sidious silencing the trooper Fives to keep the conspiracy hidden.
Q 30Who duels Palpatine to a stalemate after the Empire is declared?
Yoda
Matthew Stover's novelization has the Jedi Master realise mid-duel that the Sith had evolved while his order had not.