Jedi News is reporting that Ian McDiarmid will be returning in Episode VII. Emperor Palpatine reborn? Undead? A relative? A Holocron? Or simply in a dream or vision? Naturally this is completely unconfirmed, but there are any number of possibilities…
But if I was betting? Holocron, ghost or vision. By a mile.
Sith holocron would be awesome. Found by Luke’s daughter.
@dja17, OK, I get that you might not like Ben Skywalker, but to call him Luke’s daughter…
But I agree – sounds like a Force Ghost or Sith holocron
Maybe they are doing the Dark Empire comics? Comes back as a clone?
I dearly hope not.
Don’t care, as long as Ian returns! Seriously though – perhaps a flashback?
I love Dark Empire, so to use a 3PO quote here: Come baaaack! ;-)
Yes! Don’t care how, as long as he is back.
I think they’ve made it pretty clear many times that it is an original story. So plot points from Dark Empire, Heir to the Empire, and so on are really unlikely.
That’s not going to stop people from speculating, alas.
@Dunc like how you speculate in your post?
; )
Besides, speculation is all part of the fun!
Difference: I’m not speculating based on EU stuff we know we can’t depend on, nor am I saying it’s for sure one thing. Those are options, possibilities. I wouldn’t nail anything down at this point.
It’s easy to just skip to ‘Oh, it’s DE!’ I expect that to die down soon enough.
I expect it to as well, Dunc. But the casting call that we’ve seen didn’t seem to make a dent in any of that and I expected it to penetrate a little deeper than it did.
True. And I’ve been avoiding any of that sort of speculation like the plague, but the nice thing about the casting call is that it didn’t easily fit into any of the existing slots, so people can’t just bust out a simple EU reference in 2.5 seconds.
I’m sure there’s involved speculation somewhere, probably the message boards.
There is fairly involved speculation on message boards, but it is inevitably hampered down by the idea that the age of Jaina Solo can be amended (or whatever character you want to insist is in the new saga). If you can’t put the circular object into the hole, than just say the circular object has been changed to a square peg. That’s the methodology. But you know, they’re mostly just kids having fun.
I have been interested in the structural implications. If we have four main leads, that leads to the old “three’s company, four’s a crowd” idea. So to me, it makes me think one dies and that leads the three remaining characters into some sort of possible romantic love triangle/conflict of sorts. That’s as far as I go.
But I am probably going somewhere you’re not interested in going with that. That said, the possibilities are endless. Remember back during the prequel era when people were adamant that Arthurian love triangle was imminent? Jar Jar was to save the babies in Episode III? Bail Orana was a suitor for Padmé?
I learned a lot from the prequel era. Character and story structure are indicative of a lot, but it doesn’t hold any element’s feet to the fire. The combinations and possibilities are endless.
::Covers eyes, yodels::
Yodeling is a Swiss thing, right? Alderaan is kind of like Switzerland, right? My god, you cracked it wide open! Episode VII takes place on New Alderaan!