Anyone think that little sound bite at the end of the Episode 9 trailer is a ruse to throw everyone off? And then bringing Ian McDiarmid on stage to top it all off? Has J.J. ever been so on the nose about anything?

It’s a flashback, imo. Rey and Snoke were a leftover plan that died with Palp probably.

I kind of wonder if they might have his spirit might be tied to the downed death star. Not in a way that allows him to come back, but like a remnant of him. Maybe a scene similar to the one Luke faced on Dagobah, but different.

The teaser palpatine laugh must have emanated from the tie fighter jyn erso walls toward in rogue one.

Palpatine will be in the film to some extent, considering that they mentioned having the actor on set. The question will be how much he will be there and how they plant to tie him into the films story, since he is about the only thing that seems to tie the three trilogies together if they bring him back.

Kathleen Kennedy has indicated it's not a fakeout. Palpatine IS involved somehow, and that they had plans to bring him back as early as TFA. Ian McDiarmid is also listed in the credits on IMDB.

18 hours ago, Ambaryerno said:

Kathleen Kennedy has indicated it's not a fakeout. Palpatine IS involved somehow, and that they had plans to bring him back as early as TFA. Ian McDiarmid is also listed in the credits on IMDB.

That's interesting about Kathleen's comment.

IMDB is not always a reliable source, though.

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On 4/16/2019 at 9:57 AM, CaptainJaguarShark said:

I kind of wonder if they might have his spirit might be tied to the downed death star. Not in a way that allows him to come back, but like a remnant of him. Maybe a scene similar to the one Luke faced on Dagobah, but different.

In SWTOR, there’s an expansion that deals with Revans soul being split between light and dark. The light half becomes a force ghost while the dark half physically remains. The dark half can only remain for a time, so it goes to Yavin to start harvesting force energy to become a permanent being again. So perhaps Palps is physically alive, but tied to the 2nd Death Star, and will try to take someone’s power to escape.

7 hours ago, FlyingAnchors said:

In SWTOR, there’s an expansion that deals with Revans soul being split between light and dark. The light half becomes a force ghost while the dark half physically remains. The dark half can only remain for a time, so it goes to Yavin to start harvesting force energy to become a permanent being again. So perhaps Palps is physically alive, but tied to the 2nd Death Star, and will try to take someone’s power to escape.

Interesting enough but I personally hate this in the saga. Nothing's been established in the films that suggests Palpatine is still alive in anyway beyond the laugh in this trailer. I am very much hoping for something a little less than him still being half-alive.

Not me. I'm hoping it leads to Palpatine: A Star Wars Trilogy.
I is his apprenticeship to Plagueis/bleed over into The Phantom Menace
II is what he was up to in between Rebels and Empire Strikes Back
III is what he's been up to since Death Star II.

It's a cheap way to get (some) people that wrote off the new films after Safe Soft Reboot and Misaimed Garbage Fire. You'd have to be pretty green to think otherwise.