Lucasfilm Publishing is gearing up to release a novelization of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," set to explain the biggest mystery of the film: how did Emperor Palpatine survive and manage to appear in the final film? Lucasfilm Publishing released book excerpts at Chicago's C2E2 convention last weekend. This led to several revelations being leaked online, and one of those involved Palpatine, which should have been explored on film, instead of just this book.

According to released book excerpts, Emperor Palpatine was a clone in "The Rise of Skywalker." Screenrant released an excerpt from the novelization and it involves the moment Kylo Ren arrived at Exegol and his realization that Palpatine was using technology from the Clone Wars era.

The possibility of Palpatine being a clone was alluded to by Dominic Monaghan's character Beaumont during the film.

Emperor Palpatine's survival was discussed before in another story

Emperor Palpatine returning as a clone is not that surprising. Palpatine once returned in similar fashion in the "Expanded Universe" stories, and it was actually an idea George Lucas supported. One difference between the two appearances is that Palpatine's clone body in the "Expanded Universe" was much stronger than the one moviegoers saw in "The Rise of Skywalker." The upcoming novel doesn't explain any further on how Emperor Palpatine returned, or how he was able to control Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order, while in a weakened clone body.

If J.J. Abrams actually spent time on this subject, we could have seen a better explanation in "The Force Awakens." According to a Cinefex interview with "Star Wars" visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett, the return of Palpatine was originally set to happen in the first film, instead of the last. Guyett said that Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid was on board for reprising the role and wanted to bring him back as a clone.

Emperor Palpatine dark side spirit could not be contained in a clone body

The film avoided answering the questions fans have had for a while. The emperor avoided explaining his survival by saying the Dark Side offers abilities many would consider unnatural. Fans are hoping the upcoming novels will explain more about what really happened.

The book excerpts confirm that Palpatine's spirit was transferred to a clone body. In "Return of Skywalker," Kylo arrives in Exegol and sees Palpatine attached to machinery, recognizing it from his Clone Wars studies. Palpatine's extremely dark side is too much for his clone body to contain and is causing major degeneration. Fans only have a few weeks left to pick up the first novel, set to explain one of "The Rise of Skywalker," biggest questions.
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