His laboratory was riddled with other unsettling experiments to illustrate how messed up Exegol was.

He told Luke Skywalker he cheated death by transferring his spirit into a clone body.

This assumption was all but confirmed in the third and final season ofStar Wars: The Bad Batch.

Left side: Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, raising his arms in front of a red background; Right side: An illustration of Emperor Palpatine on the cover of Star Wars: Dark Empire, raising his arms with a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers in the background.

This led me to consider the horrifying possibility of where Palpatine was if not in a lone body.

It makesEmperor Palpatine’s fate even darker and gives more weight to the final chapter of theStar WarsSkywalker Saga.

Ian McDiarmid As Palpatine With Emperoer and Lightsaber Wielding Palpatine in Background Custom Star Wars Image

Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi in the foreground with the Death Star in the background surrounded by Force lightning

Star Wars - Commandant Brendol Hux and Emperor Palpatine

Custom Image by Yeider Chacon

Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars Return of the Jedi

Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious

Star Wars