Ian McDiarmid has been playing Emperor Palpatine for more than four decades. First, it was as the mysterious big bad of the original Star Wars trilogy, and then as a Senator who rises to the ultimate position of power in the Galaxy (and Anakin Skywalker's corruptor) in the prequels.
Return of the Jedi killed the Emperor, and Revenge of the Sith wrapped up the story of how he became the monster we first met in The Empire Strikes Back. We never expected to see the villain again, but The Rise of Skywalker brought him back from the dead as a clone.
Talking to Variety, McDiarmid said it was "very satisfying" to learn he had a granddaughter in Daisy Ridley's Rey. However, no one told him how the Emperor managed to have children.
"There was never any discussion of any of that. It was up to me to work it out in my head," the actor explained. "There was talk in 'The Phantom Menace' about something called midichlorians, which were involved somehow in Anakin’s birth. George didn’t want to go too deeply into that. But we reckoned it was kind of virgin birth, though one ought not to say that because God knows you get all sorts of complications."
"Then people ask the slightly embarrassing question about, 'Does this evil monster ever have sex?' And we don’t really know the answer to that question either — things in tubes, you think about probably, rather than the awful vision that you might have in your head of this monster ever having a sexual relationship with anybody," McDiarmid added.
Reviews for The Rise of Skywalker weren't positive, and fans made it clear they didn't enjoy seeing Palpatine back from the dead. The response to the teaser trailer had been largely positive; however, the way the villain's return was executed proved largely unsatisfying and left a long list of unanswered questions.
"Well, there’s always something, isn’t there? I don’t read that stuff and I’m not online," McDiarmid said of the response. "So it’ll only reach me if someone mentions it. I thought there might be a bit of a fuss about bringing him back. But as I said, mine and Palpatine’s logic was entirely reasonable."
"This man who was horribly maimed thought maybe one day it might happen to him, and we’ve got to have a plan B. I loved the whole idea that he should come back and be even more powerful than he was before," he continued. "Though this time, he had to be utterly destroyed. So I think he’s dead."
The trade also put it to the actor that there had been plans for a TV series featuring Palpatine (from George Lucas, not Disney+). Asked if anything from that was shared with him, he said, "Just the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise. It’s fairly obvious that my character murdered Plagueis on his road to becoming Palpatine. But beyond that, no."
"With George, you didn’t discuss anything really. You turn up and you shoot. These films take a long time to make and the pressure is intense for many reasons; of course, George was at the forefront of all of that. So he had all of that to think about day by day. He takes a good deal of trouble over casting; but, once he’s cast, then he likes the actors to get on with it," McDiarmid concluded.
The Emperor has continued to show up here and there in Star Wars projects, though Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy recently confirmed that Palpatine won't factor into season 2. Plans to explore Plagueis' backstory were seemingly scrapped when The Acolyte was cancelled.