The Emperor’s Laugh
Following that bombshell comes an even bigger one. As the trailer fades to black, a disturbing cackle is heard. Cue the sound of every fan’s jaw hitting the floor. You no doubt recognized this as the laugh of Emperor Palpatine. But is this really the case? You betcha. After the trailer debuted at the Episode IX panel and the lights came back on, Ian McDiarmid was revealed to be on the stage. Resurrecting his Darth Sidious voice, he said: “Roll it again” to the cheers of the crowd.
Yes, the Emperor is back. There’ve long been theories that Palpatine would return in the Sequel Trilogy, maybe in connection with Snoke – his effective replacement in the past two movies. With Snoke having been murdered by his former protege though – much like Palpatine – in TLJ, it seems the Emperor will reappear to prove that he’s the ultimate evil in the galaxy.
So, how could he be back when Vader threw him into the Death Star’s core in Return of the Jedi? Well, the most likely option is that he’ll reappear as a Force ghost. If the gang are visiting the ruins of the weapon, his final resting place, it makes sense that it could be depicted as a kind of haunted house with his spirit haunting the heroes.
Alternatively, maybe Abrams is pulling from the Legends stories and resurrecting the Emperor for real? In the old expanded universe books, Palpatine was revealed to have transferred his consciousness into a clone body. Solo recently also drew from this material when revealing that Maul was still alive. Could Lucasfilm repeat the trick with Sidious?