An official image of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is released. Though Lucasfilm incorporated the villain into the film's marketing campaign (Palpatine's iconic laugh closed out the teaser trailer), his presence in promotional materials was kept to a minimum. Audiences mostly just heard the character's voice, as the studio was saving the full reveal of Palpatine's physical form for the actual movie. Even the one poster that prominently featured Palpatine's face Photoshopped in an image of a collectible figure, rather than using something from the film.
Of course, this was all strategic, serving as a way to play up the mysteries surrounding The Rise of Skywalker. When the film premiered last month, fans finally got to see what Palpatine looked like. While the Emperor had mysteriously survived his apparent demise in Return of the Jedi, his body was in a deformed state and he required the use of a mechanical contraption to move around. Now, at long last, an official still image of Palpatine makes its way online.
The photo was unveiled as part of an update to Darth Sidious' page on the Star Wars Databank. Its original version is very dark, but you can see it brightened in the space above.
In hindsight, it's curious why something like this wasn't shared during the pre-release build-up. Clearly, Lucasfilm felt it was enough to simply tell people Palpatine was in The Rise of Skywalker, though they might have benefitted from doing a proper reveal in advertising. Nobody's saying the studio should have spoiled any of the film's twists involving Palpatine, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt if the above image was either part of a stills gallery or the money shot in a trailer. It doesn't give anything away, and probably would have made audiences more excited for the movie. A case can be made Lucasfilm was too secretive for their own good in Rise of Skywalker promotion, which might have contributed to the film posting the sequel trilogy's worst box office opening weekend.
As the overarching villain of the Skywalker saga, Palpatine is to Star Wars what Thanos is to the MCU. Fans might recall that Avengers: Endgame's marketing was quite secretive, but Marvel still made a point to show the Mad Titan on various materials. Without spoiling any major Endgame revelations (like the fact Infinity War's Thanos was beheaded and the Thanos in Endgame's final battle time traveled from 2014), Marvel was able to clearly spotlight who the Avengers were going up against and the threat they faced. Lucasfilm's decision to hold back on Palpatine is admirable to a certain extent, but an argument can be made the studio needlessly handcuffed themselves by being coy with the Emperor. An increased presence for Palpatine in Rise of Skywalker marketing may not have improved the film's mixed reviews, but perhaps the box office would have gotten a bit of a boost.
Source: Star Wars Databank
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