Ian McDiarmid Talks About Emperor Palpatine Having Sex and Defends His Return in RISE OF SKYWALKER

If you’ve never thought about the Star Wars villain Emperor Palpatine having sex, you will today. Sorry, but during a recent interview with Empire, actor Ian McDiarmid shared some of his thoughts on Emperor Palpatine defending his return for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as well as the character having sex.

When talking about Palpatine’s return to the franchise, which a lot of fans didn’t like, he said:

“A lot of people said it was ridiculous. Of course, he was dead at the end of Return Of The Jedi! And frankly, I think George thought he’d killed me too. But J.J. thought it would be a good idea – I wasn’t going to argue with him. I felt that Palpatine always had a plan B – probably a plan C, D, E, and F as well, and he was an expert in cloning, so…”

Yeah, but it was still ridiculous and it would’ve been a lot more interesting if they had revealed a different original villain. But, McDiarmid believes that this whole grand plan makes Palpatine now stand out as the ultimate cinematic villain, saying:

“The thing that I’m most pleased about, and you know, this only came to a head when they asked me to come back for The Rise Of Skywalker, is that every single evil act in all of the Star Wars franchise is either directly or indirectly down to that character. That is total evil, and that’s strangely satisfying as an arc. I do feel fortunate to have been able to do it – and other villains of cinema now have to compete with that.”

There are other evil villains in the franchise, but I get what he’s saying. The conversation then leads to the existence of Daisy Ridley’s Rey, who happens to be Palpatine’s granddaughter. So naturally, McDiarmid opens up about Palpatine sex:

“Please don’t pursue that line too vigorously. But yes, he does [have sex]. It’s a horrible idea to think of Palpatine having sex in any shape or form. But then, of course, perhaps he didn’t. Maybe it’s all to do with midi-chlorians – and don’t ask me what those are. Never trust your granddaughter. That’s the T-shirt Palpatine got made. Shortly after his death.”

There were a lot of different ways that they could have ended the sequel trilogy, but bringing Palpatine back was one of the less interesting ones. Regardless, what are your thoughts on McDiarmid’s comments here?