This article contains spoilers for Andor episode 7
So far Andor has been content to carve its own path through the Star Wars saga. We haven’t seen a single lightsaber, the Force seems like a distant religion irrelevant to the story, and there’s no crossover with any other stories set during the period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
That may be changing soon as the show just namedropped arguably the most important person in the Skywalker saga. This week saw The Clone Wars and A New Hope character Wullf Yularen return to announce a new Imperial crackdown, saying “I spoke with Emperor Palpatine and he’s assured me that the ISB will be taking the lead going forward.
In a later scene Mon Mothma and Luthen discuss this Imperial response, saying “Palpatine won’t hesitate now” in rooting out any hint of Rebellion. Then, during the party, she says she’s learned a key lesson from the Emperor “I show you the stone in my hand, you miss the knife at your throat”.
So, could we actually see Ian McDiarmid on screen in the show?
Well, he seems happy to reprise the role of Palpatine any time he’s asked and appeared in Star Wars as recently as Obi-Wan Kenobi earlier this year. We’d love to see him making a speech in the Imperial Senate or (and this would be the true chaos option) perhaps arriving as a surprise guest of honor at one of Mon Mothma’s swanky dinner parties.
Seeing Palpatine in action is always a treat as McDiarmid never passes up a chance to chew the scenery. However, as Palpatine is still putting on at least some semblance of normalcy in keeping the Senate up and running (albeit completely defanged of power), we may see him behaving more similarly to his public face in the prequel trilogy.
Fingers crossed he appears, as him turning up would raise the stakes considerably.