Star Wars' Worst Mistake Was Actually One of the Franchise's Best Ideas (Yes, Really)

Rise of Skywalker's "Somehow, Palpatine returned" is perhaps the most derided line in Star Wars history, and yet I'm here to argue it was actually a good idea - one that would be hailed as a success if its potential hadn't been squandered elsewhere.

In 2019, Rise of Skywalker revealed that Emperor Palpatine's death in Return of the Jedi wasn't as final as it seemed, with the Sith mastermind returning for one more attempt at seizing control of the galaxy. However, this wasn't how most fans learned Palpatine was back. The twist initially came during a Fortnite event, where players could hear Palpatine's broadcast to the galaxy revealing his return.

Fortnite is a popular online game, made famous by its battle royale tournament, where 100 players vie to survive. Its free-to-play model and cross-platform play have helped make it one of the most popular games in the world.

It was a widely derided move at the time, and yet the decision itself was a work of genius - one only ruined by the movie that came after...

Why Star Wars' Fortnite Reveal Was Controversial

In 2019, Fortnite players could attend an in-game Star Wars Gala Event to celebrate the upcoming Rise of Skywalker. A surprise broadcast revealed that Palpatine was alive, with the villain declaring the upcoming "Day of the Sith." It was the first time fans of the sequel trilogy had it confirmed that Palpatine was behind Kylo Ren's corruption, with Supreme Leader Snoke being only a puppet for the Machiavellian emperor.

When Rise of Skywalker came around, fans were introduced to a galaxy that had already heard Palpatine's message, with the opening crawl telling us that since we last saw our heroes, the same speech had echoed out across the galaxy. Indeed, it was only in 2025's Rise of Skywalker comic adaptation that the speech was included in canon Star Wars material.

Palpatine's return was itself controversial. Fans asserted that The Last Jedi clearly wasn't written with Palpatine's return in mind, and that Disney had basically caved to pressure, bringing back the original trilogy's villain to mollify fans who didn't enjoy the franchise's new direction. Whatever the motivation, there are few fans who will argue that Palpatine's return improved the sequels.

However, for all those flaws, the actual decision to reveal Palpatine's return in Fortnite was a good one, at least taken in isolation.

Star Wars' Fortnite Reveal Was a Great Idea

For years now, Fortnite has been one of the biggest games in the world, with hundreds of millions of active users, the majority aged 18-24. That's a vital fanbase for Star Wars, which is generally believed to have a fan base averaging in their thirties. To survive, Star Wars must appeal to younger fans, and it did so in a genuinely exciting way.

Star Wars went to younger fans where they hang out and gave them exclusive access to a huge twist. It's hard to think of another time a franchise as big as Star Wars has shared something so significant direct to its audience.

At the same time, Palpatine's broadcast was perfectly framed as if it was a real world event. Only a select few (million) people heard the original 'broadcast', with word of mouth rippling out and getting bound up in rumor and speculation. The opening crawl to Rise of Skywalker describes events in both the movie and the real world, beginning:

The dead speak! The galaxy has heard a mysterious broadcast, a threat of REVENGE in the sinister voice of the late EMPEROR PALPATINE...

Fortnite replicated the experience of being a civilian in the Star Wars galaxy and learning second-hand that a mysterious broadcast had confirmed Palpatine's return, unexplained and shocking.

The experience Star Wars and Fortnite served up to its fans was a huge, immersive twist directed directly at the age demographic Disney is desperate to attract to the property. So what went wrong?

What Actually Made Palpatine's Return a Bad Idea

While introducing Palpatine's speech in Fortnite was a good decision, it should never have only appeared there. Rise of Skywalker is unsatisfying in many regards, but one of the biggest is that when the movie starts, the trilogy's big villain has returned off-screen. Yes, the movies were always meant to feel like episodes in an ongoing serial, but bringing back the Emperor Palpatine offscreen and without explanation was a bridge too far.

The speech should have appeared in the movie, or at least in other media as well. That's because despite its popularity, Fortnite is relatively siloed off in terms of wider culture. A huge amount of people play Fortnite, but those who don't know next to nothing about it. This created a barrier to word of mouth that wouldn't exist with other similarly popular (or even less popular) media.

Even those who did hear about Palpatine's Fortnite speech didn't know how important it would be to the movie - and it shouldn't have been that important. Getting to be the first to hear about this twist was great marketing for both Fortnite and Star Wars, but having the twist exclusive to Fortnite is what caused most of the problems.

How Should Palpatine's Return Have Been Handled?

Disney was absolutely right to target a younger demographic with such a major twist, making them the first to hear the big news. It was also an awesome decision to share the speech where no-one expected it, and let Palpatine's return pass from fan to fan, making the reveal immersive and mysterious.

However, Fortnite's unusual place in pop culture made it the wrong venue, at least to use exclusively. Fans can see how good of an idea Palpatine's speech reveal was if they imagine it being broadcast as part of the 2019 Super Bowl.

All the same ingredients are present, and ultimately a similar number of people are directly involved, but the Super Bowl has a far wider cultural footprint. If those watching the Super Bowl had been the first to hear of Palpatine's return, kickstarting Star Wars fans to begin frantically sharing the news, this media stunt could have been hailed as a work of genius, even if Rise of Skywalker didn't live up to the hype.

Disney Deserves Praise for Rise of Skywalker's Marketing... If Not the Movie Itself

Ultimately, Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker was a poorly received movie, with all the signs of last-second changes to the narrative. However, the 2019 reveal of Palpatine's return in the real world, where no-one was expecting it, was a great idea... at least on paper.

Sadly, the real world is more unpredictable than it seems in a marketing pitch meeting, and one of Star Wars' most ambitious ideas blew up in Disney's face instead.