New Star Wars trailer's Emperor hint: JJ Abrams clarifies

By Chris Burns/April 19, 2019 10:31 am EST

The new Star Wars Episode 9 trailer included a laugh track you may've recognized. You probably reacted to the end of the first trailer for The Rise of Skywalker like Han Solo right after getting un-frozen from his carbonite block: "I know that laugh." But we won't know what it all means until the movie is released, right? As it turns out, JJ Abrams, director of this Star Wars film, was more than happy to lend additional confirmation to the hint given in the trailer.

During the Star Wars Celebration 2019 event in Chicago this month, Ian McDiarmid appeared onstage. He didn't just appear onstage for a Q&A session for Star Wars in general. He wasn't just there because he's one of the most important people in the entire Star Wars universe (thus far, anyway). He was there sitting alongside the rest of the actors confirmed to take part in Star Wars Episode 9.

The new Star Wars film will, indeed, include The Emperor in some form or another. That's according to James Dyer having spoken directly with JJ Abrams at Star Wars Celebration on the 12th of April, 2019.

In case there's any lingering ambiguity from the trailer (and McDiarmid's appearance at the panel!), I can 100% confirm that Palpatine is back in The Rise Of Skywalker as I just asked JJ. He's thrilled – and slightly incredulous- that McDiarmid's presence on set didn't leak. pic.twitter.com/qDzPQagXSW

— James Dyer (@jamescdyer) April 12, 2019

According to Dyer's interpretation of Abrams' brief response, there's still a little ambiguity. "All I know is that he's in the film in some capacity," said Dyer. Now we can begin hypothesizing wildly! Extremely wildly, I say!

Have a peek at the video above. This comes from what's apparently (?!) a bit of canon action from the video game Star Wars Battlefront II. It's still a little strange, thinking the sometimes wild, sometimes entirely reasonable storylines shown in this game could be recognized by everyone else in the official Star Wars story universe – but that's apparently how it is.

Dear Pablo Hidalgo – is this accurate? I know one piece of media like this doesn't necessarily influence what'll happen in the new movie – but will it have any affect whatsoever?