For a saga that’s made a lot of capital out of people dying over the past four decades, it was somewhat surprising to hear Luke Skywalker reveal to the assembled Jedi masses that “no one’s ever really gone” in the debut trailer for The Rise of Skywalker. However, Star Wars has dropped more than a few hints that a glittering afterlife exists in a galaxy far, far away over the past 11 films.
First, there were all those Force ghosts in the original trilogy and the more recent Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin all returned as spectral versions of their former selves, with personalities and (in some cases) eccentric syntax intact. Then there was the odd clunky mention of the Force’s power to help one cheat death in the prequel trilogy, Yoda’s revelation to Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith that Qui-Gon Jinn had taught him badass Force ghost skills, and Palpatine’s use of the story of Darth Plagueis (who once learned how to keep mortals from death) to tempt Anakin to the dark side in the same movie.
If Luke (presumably himself a Force ghost in Rise of Skywalker) had said “no Jedi is ever gone”, that might have made some sense. We know it’s possible for the lightsaber-wielding space monks to train themselves to communicate with the living via brief holidays from the Force netherworld. The dead Jedi knight apparently revealed that the rules of life and death are different in Star Wars for everyone we’ve ever met. Why then, would anyone get upset at the demise of Han Solo, or all those Ewoks in the battle of Endor? Will Padmé, Boba Fett and Biggs Darklighter also be making an appearance in Star Wars IX? Perhaps Shmi Skywalker, Cliegg Lars and the entire clan of Tusken Raiders murdered by Anakin in Revenge of the Sith will also be dusting off their desert-wear. Am I reading too much into that one line? Probably. But why put it there if fans aren’t to speculate wildly on its meaning?
The most controversial, and potentially potent, resurrection would be that of Palpatine himself, whose cackle can be heard in the trailer just after Luke utters that immortal line. Surely this isn’t just Disney playing up the nostalgia factor to lure us into the multiplex? Given that Ian McDiarmid was wheeled out in person after the trailer’s debut at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago last Friday, while Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy later revealed that the studio had been planning the Emperor’s return for some time, we can assume this is actually happening.
The blogosphere is brimming with theories about how Palpatine might have cheated death. Was he able to learn Plagueis’s trick and use the technique on himself? Did the Emperor survive being thrown into the second Death Star’s reactor by Vader? Is he just some kind of Sith Force ghost?
The appearance of the ruins of the aforementioned superweapon in the trailer certainly hints at Palpatine’s survival. Fans will also be hoping that any explanation for such a return somehow makes sense of Supreme Emperor Snoke’s place in the story. Was he just a decoy, or foil for the true and undefeated doyen of the dark side?
Perhaps the more important question is not how Palpatine is set to return, but whether Disney can make this plot line work without ruining the original trilogy. Hollywood has been bringing popular characters back from the dead ever since blockbuster sequels became commonplace, but the ploy is rarely successful. To follow this route in a saga as iconic as Star Wars is risky– though perhaps we should have expected it after James Earl Jones’s Vader made his return in Rogue One (though clearly Gareth Edwards’ film was a prequel story).
The average Star Wars fan will surely be baffled by the returns of Luke and the Emperor in The Rise of Skywalker. But as the film-makers have identified, if they can pull this one off it could restore a sense of balance to the saga that has arguably been missing since Snoke got sliced in half and Rey started her strange sort-of Force romance thing with Kylo Ren.
Few of us realised when The Force Awakens appeared in 2015 that three movies later the game would be nostalgia for the original trilogy, rather than a brave new journey. Now all they need to do is rehabilitate Jar Jar Binks and nobody will hate the prequels any more, George Lucas can be restored to his rightful place (ahem) at the apex of Star Wars creativity and the circle will finally be complete. Or they could, you know, write something new.
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