Somehow, Palpatine returned in J.J. Abrams'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - and between established canon and the former Emperor's appearance in the movie, there's plenty of evidence to support the theory that he returned in a clone body.

Cloning has been a part of the Star Wars franchise since the very first movie, Star Wars: A New Hope, which included amentionof the Clone Wars. The prequel movie Star Wars: Attack of the Clonesintroduced an army of clone troopers, based on the genetics of bounty hunter Jango Fett,thatwere created by the Republic to fight the Separatist battle droid army.These clone troopersproved to be instrumental in Palpatine's deadliest plan: each of them was implanted with a chip that, upon receiving Order 66, caused them to turn on theJedi and slaughter them. Needless to say, clones have long been affiliated with the dark side.

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When confronted by Kylo Ren at the start of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine tells him that he has died before and that "the dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." While thiscould interpreted as a deliberately vague allusion to Palpatine somehow using to Force to resurrect himself after he fell into the Death Star II's reactor, the scheming Sith could just as easily have used cloning to orchestrate his return.

If Palptine's return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker feels familiar, it may be because of its striking similarities to the 1992 Expanded Universe comic Dark Empire. Set in a post-Return of the Jedi future where the Imperial forces have risen again, Dark Empire takes Luke Skywalker to a planet called Byss that is "entirely enveloped in the power of the dark side" - much like Exegol. There, he meets a resurrected Emperor Palpatine, whose dialogue (pictured above) closely mirrors Palpatine's words to Kylo Ren in Rise of Skywalker. Unlike the movie version, however, this Palpatine goes on to explain exactly how he was able to return to life, and reveals that it's not the first time he's done so. The great power of the Force takes a terrible toll on the fragile flesh of Palpatine's body, forcing him to periodically transfer himself into a new clone. This conveniently explains how a villain as arrogant as Palpatinemighthave had a new clone body ready to go in the event of his death.

A great deal of Star Wars canon was discarded when the Expanded Universe was retconned out of official continuity and rebranded as Star Wars Legends in April 2014. However, one of the firstnew in-canon comics released under the Disney umbrella quickly re-introduced the idea of bad guys using clone bodies to survive.The 2015 Marvel Comics series Darth Vader, which followed Vader's exploits in the aftermath of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, featured a character called Doctor Cylo. A scientist specializing in cybernetics, Cylo created a series of clone bodies for himself and set up a system whereby if one clone was killed, the next would be activated (a similar premise was used in a recent episode of Rick and Morty). Cylo ultimately ends up turning on the Emperor and is killed for his betrayal, butthis story establishes that Palpatine knew about a method of surviving death by setting up a clone body to be activated in the event of his defeat. Palpatine being ever the schemer, it makes sense that he wouldhave stolen Cylo's idea and created his own clones in order to achieve immortality.

When the sequel trilogy first began with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there weren't yet any plans to resurrect Palpatine for the third movie. Instead, The Force Awakens introduced a new big bad - Supreme Leader Snoke - who issued commands to the First Order. Snoke was killed at the end of Star Wars: The Last Jedi,and at the start of Rise of Skywalker Palpatine reveals that the so-called "Supreme Leader" was merely a clone - a puppet designed to exert Palpatine's influence without revealing his continued existence. We even see some spare Snoke clones growing in a vat on Exegol, which means that Palpatine had cloning technology readily available to him. If he used this technology to create Snoke, it stands to reason that he may havealso used cloning to survive his fall into the Death Star II's reactor.

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When we meet Palpatine again in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, he admittedly looks a bit worse for wear. A zombie-like being suspended from a mechanical throne, Palpatine's body appears to be little more than a shell. That being said, the shell doesn't look like it fell down into a reactor and then exploded, which is what happened to Palpatine at the end of Return of the Jedi. One thing seems to be certain: whatever body Palpatine is using in Rise of Skywalker, it's not the same one that fought Darth Vader on the Death Star II.

While it's possible that Palpatine may have used the "unnatural abilities" of the dark side of the Force to build a newvessel for his vile soul, the clone explanation is a lot simpler and in line with what we've previously seen in the franchise. In fact, the two explanations aren't mutually exclusive, as Palpatine may have used the science of cloning in conjunction with his Force powers. Cyloused cybernetics to givehimself a simple personality map and backup memories banks, which is what allowed him to transfer his mind between bodies. Palpatine, whose mind is infinitely more complex,is more likely to have achieved the transition using the Forcerather than trying to reduce himself down to cybernetics.

What this means for the future of Star Wars is that Disney could very easily find a way to resurrect Palpatine again down the line - though given the generally poor reception to dredging up Palpatine for The Rise of Skywalker, the studio probably won't play that card again for a while.

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Hannah has been with Screen Rant since the heady days of 2013, starting out as a humble news writer and eventually clawing her way up the ladder through a series of Machiavellian schemes and betrayals. She's now a features writer and editor, covering the hottest topics in the world of nerddom from her home base in Oxford, UK.Hannah enjoys weird horror movies, weirder sci-fi movies, and also the movie adaptation of Need for Speed - the greatest video game movie of all time. She has lived and studied in New York and Toronto, but ultimately returned home so that she could get a decent cup of tea. Her hobbies include drawing, video games, long walks in the countryside, and wasting far too much time on Twitter.Speaking of which, you can follow Hannah online at @HSW3K

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Star Wars Theory: Palpatine Was A CLONE In Rise of Skywalker - Screen Rant