Ok guys, so we are going to go deep, deep into speculation territory here and this speculation was prompted by two recent rumors swirling around this week for Star Wars: Episode 9. The two rumors I am talking about are….

That Star Wars: Episode 9 will be a course correction for the franchise – You can catch our initial take on the story Here. This particular rumor seems legit, given both the source and what we know about Lucasfilm reaction to the negative fan response to The Last Jedi and the Solo flop.

Second up is the rumor that began yesterday that there was a possibility that Matt Smith could be playing a young version of Darth Sidious aka Sheev Palpatine in Episode 9. (Note: I hate the name Sheev and much preferred when he was called Frank?). Now, in terms of how confident I am of this rumor being true, well, it’s sitting around zero. Even the site who first revealed this rumor admitted it was sketchy at best. You can catch editor-in-chief Joseph Jammer Medina’s original story on this rumor Here.

Still with me? Good, because here is where we have a bit of fun. What If?…..What if both of these rumors turn out to be true, if these were solid leaks instead of rumor what would we predict is going on here?

Today we are going to explore what I feel is the only possible way that the inclusion of a young Palpatine could work and would also fall into the course correction strategy of Episode 9. Now, remember this is pure speculation at this time and I claim nothing more, so if you disagree with my theory here, feel free to tell us.

To me there is absolutely only one reason for a younger version of Palpatine/Sidious to appear in Episode 9 and that’s to show how he betrayed and killed Darth Plagueis. It’s literally the only story beat across all eight episodes so far which has mentioned a period prior to Episode 1. Now, if we assume that we could get a flashback scene of Young Palpatine and his former master, then it raises several intriguing possibilities and conclusions.

Snoke actually is Darth Plagueis! –

It’s the only possible reason I can think of to show the assassination of Plagueis at the hands of Darth Sidious. And if Snoke is really Darth Plagueis after all. This raises one further clear logical conclusion,

Snoke/Plagueis is not dead! –

There is again no need to even mention the name Darth Plagueis again unless he as some sort of importance to the plot, the only way for me he could have importance in Episode 9 is the fact that he is not dead.

So whilst neither of these things are certain unless Matt Smith gets confirmed as playing Palpatine (unlikely even right up till release), let’s explore a possible plot that would tie all 9 movies together as one complete narrative, shall we?

The Story of the Sith

Let’s take a little bit of rumor/speculation from just after the release of TLJ, that Snoke may in fact be able to survive without a body, that he is some sort of Sith ghost who inhabits a body, decaying it from inside out until the vessel is too far gone, he then replaces this with a stronger new body. Sort of like a Sith Wraith. This ties into what Darth Sidious told Anakin in Revenge of the Sith about Snoke finding a way to prevent death. It is even possible that Sidious was not fully aware of how this power worked, as the Sith tend not to teach their apprentices everything they know, despite what Sidious told Anakin.

This would explain two things, one being why Plagueis was nowhere to be seen in the original trilogy or the prequel trilogy, because his ‘death’ at the hands of Sidious occurred before The Phantom Menace by a quite few years. Sidious thinking his master was dead then trained Darth Maul to be his new apprentice and put his plans or possibly Plagueis’ plans into action.

Perhaps in order for Plagueis to seek his vengeance on Sidious he would require a new apprentice and time to recover his strength and find a new host? By the time he did so Sidious was Emperor of the Galaxy and had Darth Vader as his apprentice. Plagueis had to sit and hide until he found the remnants of the Empire running away from the New Republic post Return of the Jedi and his chance opened up once again.

This could mean that Plagueis, whose body was once again destroyed, this time by Kylo Ren, could have found a new body to inhabit for Star Wars: Episode 9. Perhaps he could come back and be less than pleased with his apprentices betrayal? Hux and many of the First Order would certainly gravitate towards Plagueis/Snoke again, possibly resulting a civil war between the First Order.

Crazy Time…

We could even go deeper into some crazy speculation here, what if Plagueis really did learn how to create a being like Anakin (I always thought Sidious was lying to Anakin on this point), and what if he did this to provide himself with the perfect vessel for his spirit to consume? Is it possible that Plagueis could have courted Ben Solo as a descendant of Anakin because he wants to basically go all body snatchers on him? Perhaps he had to remove the goodness fully from him before he could do this?

You may well hate this idea, I don’t blame you, but at the same time surely Episode 9 has to find a way to tie the entire nine-movie arc together. If Lucasfilm is really looking to react to the fan negativity of The Last Jedi, then this could be the kind of thing they are looking to do, many fans expressed their concerns about Supreme Leader Snoke. I myself hated how they handled Snoke, not that they killed him, it was the fact that a dark side user that powerful, old and seemingly cruel would have been a serious threat to Darth Sidious, I want an explanation of where he came from and why he sat on his hands during Sidious power grab. As it stands now I kinda wish they had never created the character in the first place as I see him as an anomaly in my head canon.

As crude as this idea is, it could provide that answer and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this is the way Lucasfilm go with Episode 9. And if you absolutely hate this idea, which I know some of my colleagues do already, then don’t worry yet. If Matt smith ever gets confirmed as playing a young Darth Sidious, then that’s the point to start worrying, as for me, the writing could be on the wall.

What do you think of my crazy theory, feel free to ridicule it as you wish, and remember I’m not saying this is what I personally want to see from Star Wars: Episode 9. Instead, this is merely me adding up pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and probably making the wrong picture.

Share any thoughts you have in the usual place below. And if next week Matt Smith gets conformed as playing Admiral Pickles of the First Order, then I take it all back.

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