Image Source: Lucasfilm
One of the most controversial decisions in the critically maligned "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" was the resurrection of the villainous Emperor Palpatine, who had seemingly met his demise in "Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi," to serve as the final antagonist with insufficient narrative setup.
However, Ian McDiarmid, who portrays Palpatine (pictured below), recently revealed that the Emperor's return could have happened much sooner.
Image Source: Empire
Speaking at a Spacecon panel recently, McDiarmid disclosed that years ago, before George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he had plans for a Palpatine spin-off series. McDiarmid recalled, "He came to me — I can say this now — he came to me about a TV series. At that point, we hadn't even thought about "Star Wars" as a TV series; it was all just a rough idea. And one day, we had lunch, and he said, 'I have an idea, and I hope you'd want to be involved.'"
Image Source: Lucasfilm
McDiarmid then described the general outline of the series, recalling Lucas saying, "We could chart the Emperor's rise, much like depicting Hitler's rise. Of course, there might be assassination attempts along the way, but they wouldn't succeed." This concept sounded truly exciting to McDiarmid, who added, "He also said, 'Perhaps you could direct one of the episodes.' And I just passed out from excitement. Unfortunately, it never came to fruition." McDiarmid did not specify why the project ultimately didn't happen.