3157: Emperor Palpatine
| Emperor Palpatine |
 Title text: Many things about Star Wars were not well planned out, but having a 37-year-old in old-age makeup play the Emperor in Return of the Jedi was such an incredible call. |
Explanation
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This is one of 54 incomplete explanations: This page was created recently. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
This comic about extrapolation observes that the Star Wars character Palpatine has generally become younger over the years of various parts of the franchise, but all use the the same actor, Ian McDiarmid, who has become older.[citation needed] Randall suggests that they should continue this trend with a toddler Palpatine played by an aging McDiarmid, because it would be mathematically pleasing (which is not generally a concern when casting films, except where it concerns the film's finances). Where it has so far been possible, using make-up and additional effects, for the actor to play a character at first much older and now much younger than him, it would require unusually extreme measures to make Randall's suggestion work, given the much larger changes that humans go through in childhood. Not only would his features need to be made radically younger, but his stature and body shape would have to be altered. It is hard to see how this could be done convincingly.
Considering that there are only four good data points (plus a fifth where one of the dimensions is unclear, so should be excluded), there is not really sufficient data to make a proper extrapolation from here. Furthermore, three of the data points are clustered closely together, reducing their usefulness as independent markers, and if the fourth was ignored these three would suggest quite a different relationship, where the actor ages along with the character.
The title text suggests that the makers of Star Wars were far-sighted enough to predict the continuing success and longevity of the franchise they were creating, and that this is the reason that they chose to 'age-up' a young actor to play the original part. Given the timeline and logistics, that led to bringing the eventual prequel-trilogy to fruition, it is highly unlikely that this was ever even an original consideration, just a fortunate opportunity to avoid recasting the role for subsequent productions.
This comic is reminiscent of 605: Extrapolating, and the more basic 2048: Curve-Fitting line-graph.
Transcript
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This is one of 29 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
[:A scatter chart with the y scale from 0 to 120 and x scale from 30 to 90]
[:X axis is emperor Palpatine character age and Y axis is Ian McDiarmid age during filming]
[:Point labeled return of the Jedi] x value = ~39 y value = ~87
[:Point labeled The phantom menace] x value = ~50 y value = ~52
[:Point labeled Attack of the clones] x value = ~52 y value = 61
[:Point labeled Revenge of the Sith] x value = ~60 y value = ~62
[:Large unfilled circle labeled Now] x value = ~81 y value = ~4
[:Vertical Line with gradient labeled Rise of Skywalker (cloned body, undefined age)] x value = ~75
[:A two large arrows trending downwards with some spots being near some points, and one arrow is ends at ~x=52 and the other one starts at ~x=54] [:caption beneath panel]
To continue the trend, they should make a star wars movie Where 81-year-old Ian Mcdiarmid plays the emperor as a toddler.
Trivia
Not depicted upon the graph are Palpatines prior actors from Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Marjorie Eaton (79) visually played the character, with similarly heavy prosthetics to McDiarmid, whilst Clive Revill (50) provided the voice.
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What happens when he is five years old in canon Star Wars Mathmaster (talk)
- As a Youngling, he would obviously get a funny hat and a 'not quite so dangerous' training-lightsaber. At least for Jedi training, can't speak for Sith training, which probably goes with the exact opposite (funny shoes and a lightsaber that has no hilt?)... ;) 22:13, 20 October 2025 (UTC)
I don't think the title text is sarcastic. Making Palpatine look older in Return of the Jedi allowed the actor's age to be very precise for the character in the 3 subsequent movies (while allowing the same actor playing the character). --181.236.188.58 22:22, 20 October 2025 (UTC)
My first thought when reading the alt-text was of the reincarnated leader of the History Monks in the Discworld, analogous to the Dalai Lama. The memories and personallity of an old man, in the body of a toddler. The wise old man is normally in control, but sometimes the toddler takes over, leading to him wanting a biccie. 92.239.132.210 (talk) 15:34, 21 October 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
If he actually included a data point at Ian=74, Emperor=119 for Rise of Skywalker instead of just claiming "undefined", the trendline would have a positive slope...regardless of whether or not 119 is accurate, he clearly appears older than he does in Return of the Jedi, and even adding a point at (74, 89) would still result in a positive slope. However, I can get behind the idea of pretending Rise of Skywalker doesn't exist. 136.226.154.60 16:24, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
Just by film chronology (because the EU and extended-EU already dealt with it, but has been largely decanonised since then), the true age of any particular Palpatine clone (there still may have been other extant ones, as well as such dead failures as might remain) is probably not much older than Jango's initial contribution to the Clone Trooper project, the same process being used (though not also on Kamino), and so roughly as old as Bobba Fett would be at that point (if surviving the Sarlak, etc), having had little to no 'aging up' treatment. Though with the aging up, effective developmental age is accelerated, and with both the hit'n'miss nature of the emperor-cloning process and the need of Exegol's caretakers to always try to keep a not-too-decrepit clone at hand to become a ready vessel for Sheev's spirit to occupy, his body's true age is probably quite young even if his apparent age is far older. And, in terms of psychological age, he's probably exactly as old as if he had not jumped-bodies, or maybe that minus any 'gap time' that his Sithish force-ghost might have had to have spent in some form of stasis as the transplantation process was being put into effect. 82.132.236.174 21:39, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
The current explanation reads like an AI response. Xseo (talk) 07:22, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- Or maybe it's just that AI responses tend to read like a collaborative edit by various people each with their own particular obsession to obscure details...?
- I'm not saying you're wrong to (presumedly) dislike the style and content, even the bits that I thought were both informative and interesting, but I don't actually know what bit(s) you might want to be different. You're welcome to make your own edits to your own satisfaction, however, in turn to be edited by those who come after you (or return) with their own stylistic/informational needs to fulfil. 82.132.244.183 09:10, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
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