Rumour: Palpatine's appearance in Star Wars: Episode VII confirmed?

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Sources say 'yay'

Just two days ago we reported that Ian McDiarmid could be returning to the Star Wars -verse as a cloned version of Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode VII .

In yet more exciting internet rumour-mongering, Latino Review has word from a source that Palpatine will definitely be making an appearance in J.J. Abrams' film - but not quite as expected.

While previous chat contemplated the possibility of the Emperor returning in Clone form, LR 's source states:

Palpatine comes back as a Force Ghost..like Obi-Wan. (Sith Lords learned similar techniques, which in some cases allowed them to physically interact with their environment.)

Though that's yet to be confirmed by an official source (and probably won't be for a good long while), it certainly makes sense in the continuity of the franchise.

And who doesn't want to see the craggy old Emperor causing trouble again in that galaxy far, far away?

Jury's out on just how much mischief a Force Ghost could actually cause, of course. Expect him to taunt our hero from the sidelines about his unimpressive lightsaber...

Joshua Winning

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.