Despite how it seemed from an early screenshot featuring a mysterious bacta-like tank escorted by the Emperor’s red-cloaked royal guard, Emperor Palpatine will not be appearing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Or, at least, Emperor actor Ian McDiarmid, who played Sheev Palpatine in four Star Wars movies (five if you include his Empire Strikes Back special edition insertion), will not appear in Rogue One.
Hound’s Tooth Blog (via Star Wars News Net) snagged a few minutes with McDiarmid at Amsterdam Comic Con, where the actor confirmed that he will not appear as Emperor Palpatine in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
(look around 6:00 for McDiarmid)
It seems the Emperor trusts Darth Vader enough to leave the defense of the Death Star project in his capable, half-mechanical hands. While Palpatine is hardly necessary for Rogue One, it would have been an interesting to see exactly how new character Director Krennic, the man in charge of the Death Star project, fit into the full Imperial bureaucracy.
It also came out recently that Rogue One would not include an appearance by young Han Solo, whose cameo had been widely assumed after the lengthy casting process that eventually settled on Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!). It’s nice to see that Rogue One will largely allow its new characters to stand on their own merits, with only Darth Vader’s star power to draw in audiences.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out in theaters Dec. 15.
