50 Fun Facts About Emperor Palpatine

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

The original trilogy never spoke his surname either; the Return of the Jedi novelization supplied it.

What is Palpatine's Sith name?

The name was first used in the novelization of The Phantom Menace rather than on screen.

In which film did the Emperor first appear on screen?

He is only mentioned in the first film, when Tarkin reveals he has dissolved the Imperial Senate.

Who physically portrayed the Emperor in the original 1980 hologram, under heavy makeup?

Rick Baker applied the makeup sculpted by Phil Tippett, after first testing it on his own wife Elaine.

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

The scene was reshot with McDiarmid for the 2004 DVD to match the prequels, and the dialogue was revised.

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

Revill said the trick with Kershner was keeping the reins tight: the Emperor does not say much, so every word counts.

What was the name of the young Emperor in Lucas's 1974 draft of Star Wars?

Lucas's earliest notes described a whole line of corrupt emperors rather than a single one.

Where did the name Palpatine first appear?

Alan Dean Foster's ghostwritten prologue sketched the Emperor's rise to power a year before the film opened.

Which Flash Gordon villain inspired the Emperor?

For Return of the Jedi the weak figurehead of early plans became a dark-side adept modelled on the comic-strip tyrant.

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

Lucas's conclusion: democracies are not overthrown, they are given away, which became the spine of the prequels.

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

Both blamed a corrupt Senate, demanded emergency powers they promised to return, and leaned on control of the army.

Lucas wanted the Emperor's Death Star arrival in Return of the Jedi to resemble what?

Kasdan saw the film's climax as a confrontation between Vader and the master who intimidates him.

A casting director spotted McDiarmid playing which dying tycoon in Sam Shepard's Seduced?

He never auditioned for Palpatine and said he never had his sights set on a film career at all.

Why did Lucas and Marquand initially plan to dub over McDiarmid's voice?

They reversed course once they heard his distinctive delivery; he went straight back to the London stage afterwards.

How long did the Return of the Jedi makeup take to apply?

Robin Wood compared the result to the hag in Snow White; Ebert reached for Death in The Seventh Seal.

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

McDiarmid himself thought of Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera when his face changes in Revenge of the Sith.

Who designed Palpatine's progressively darker prequel wardrobe?

McDiarmid's favourite piece was a high-collared jacket that felt reptilian, which he thought exactly right.

McDiarmid compared Palpatine's hypocrisy to which Shakespeare villain?

He described playing a character of solid blackness whose only motivation is the accumulation of power.

How old was McDiarmid when he took fencing lessons for Revenge of the Sith?

He performed the close-ups of the Windu duel himself and left the acrobatics to stunt doubles.

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

Peter Cushing's line is the only trace of the Emperor in the first film.

How does the Emperor die in Return of the Jedi?

Lucas said had he known how popular the character would be, he would have made the death more exciting.

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

It is also the home world of Padmé Amidala, whom he manipulates into toppling the sitting Chancellor.

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

Terence Stamp plays him; Palpatine then rides the Naboo crisis into the Chancellorship himself.

What does Palpatine tell the nine-year-old Anakin at the end of The Phantom Menace?

Lucas said the film's job for Palpatine was to explain how Anakin came to be his apprentice.

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

Christopher Lee's Separatist leader delivers the secret Death Star plans to his master as the Clone Wars begin.

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

The rescue ends with Palpatine ordering Anakin to behead the disarmed Dooku, which he does after a moment's hesitation.

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

Legends later made that Sith Palpatine's own master, killed by his apprentice in his sleep.

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

Samuel L. Jackson's Jedi had already seen three other Masters cut down in seconds when he arrived to arrest the Chancellor.

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

The Clone Wars later showed Sidious silencing the trooper Fives to keep the conspiracy hidden.

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

Matthew Stover's novelization has the Jedi Master realise mid-duel that the Sith had evolved while his order had not.

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

Kylo Ren seeks him out there and finds a physically impaired Sith Lord supported by machinery.

Which sequel-trilogy protagonist is revealed to be Palpatine's granddaughter?

Her father, who renounced Palpatine, was later described in books as made from cloned tissue and donated cells.

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

Abrams argued that after eight chapters it would have been stranger if Palpatine had not returned.

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

It was built by the Sith Eternal cultists who surround him on Exegol.

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

Her parents had fled to Jakku as nobodies to hide her, and the assassin never found the child.

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

He had just drained her and Ben's dyad energy to rejuvenate himself and was blasting the Resistance fleet.

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

The series shows Sidious orchestrating the war from both sides while serving as Chancellor.

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

Sam Witwer and then McDiarmid himself took over for the character's appearances in Rebels.

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

The stolen Kyber memory crystal held the names of thousands of Force-sensitive younglings.

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

He then tortures Maul, intending to make use of him rather than finish him off.

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

Ezra and Ahsoka slip away from his Force lightning, denying him what he called a conduit between the living and the dead.

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

Ezra destroys the reconstructed temple and the illusion, and Filoni places Rogue One right after the episode.

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

Dr. Hemlock, voiced by Jimmi Simpson, runs the work that foreshadows the Emperor's eventual return.

In the Legends comic Dark Empire, Palpatine is reborn into a clone body on which planet?

Luke and a newly trained Leia turn his own Force storm back on him, but he keeps coming back in the sequels.

Which author wrote the 2012 Legends novel about Palpatine's Sith master?

In it the young Naboo aristocrat proves his devotion by killing his own parents and siblings.

In the Aftermath novels, which adoptive son leads the Imperial remnant into the Unknown Regions?

The retreat is the seed of the First Order, in a region where one Sith cultist believed Palpatine lived on.

Battlefront II's Operation: Cinder is compared to which 1945 order by Hitler?

Palpatine's Contingency followed the same logic: if he could not have the Empire, no one would.

Which senator compared Bill Frist to Palpatine on the Senate floor in 2005?

Bloggers of the same era dubbed Robert Byrd the Emperor Palpatine of pork.

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

Michael Kaplan called it his true Emperor's garb, after a whole film in a plain black robe.

How is Palpatine present in The Force Awakens?

Luke then names him as Darth Sidious in The Last Jedi while explaining the Jedi's fall.