He along with Gwendoline Christie and Andy Serkis talked their villains at Star Wars Celebration 2023.
The dead speak! Three times, in fact. At Star Wars Celebration 2023, three deceased Star Wars villains came back from the dead (and on Easter no less) to chat about their experiences playing baddies in a galaxy far, far, away. There was Gwendoline Christie who played Captain Phasma, Andy Serkis who played Supreme Leader Snoke, and the baddest of them all, Ian McDiarmid who played Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine/Rey’s Grandfather.
“Every time it happened, I didn’t know it was going to,” McDiarmid said. He was referring to getting the job 40 years ago on Return of the Jedi, then getting the call to return as Senator Palpatine in The Phantom Menace, the fact he didn’t know that Palpatine was also Darth Sidious until his first day of shooting and then, of course, “the surprise of all surprises. He never went away,” as revealed in The Rise of Skywalker.
“He had a plan B,” McDiamrid said.
