Rey’s father in Star Wars was a failed clone of Emperor Sheev Palpatine, it has emerged.

Details in advanced copies of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker book have begun to leak online. One particular new fact is that Rey’s father was an “imperfect” clone made by Palpatine’s worshippers after he died in Return of the Jedi (1983).

It turns out that Palpatine had his consciousness transferred into a clone body that ended up decaying and looking like his original form. The transfer, as described in the book (via ScreenRant) is “imperfect” and the Sith Eternal tried to create a new body for his essence.


Another of their attempts is ends up being a “useless, powerless failure” and a “not-quite-identical” clone. Despite deciding that this last clone was unsuitable, somehow Rey’s father managed to live his own life, meet Rey’s mother, and with her eventually hide out in Jakku to protect their daughter before being killed.

The news follows the revelation that The Rise of Skywalker had a line in the original script that revealed how Palpatine managed to make an appearance in the film years after he’d supposedly died. According to Ian McDiarmid, who reprised the role of the villain in his surprise appearance in last year’s film, a line was cut where Palpatine was referred to as a clone (no, not Rey’s father), which explained his feature.

“It’s interesting” McDiarmid said during a recent appearance at Comic Con in Brussels, “because at one point the script had a line in that first scene with Adam [Driver – who plays Kylo Ren] when he says ‘You’re a clone.’ And I said in that original script, which is no longer with us, ‘More than a clone. Less than a man.’ Which seemed to me to sum it up really,” he said.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be available to buy digitally starting March 17, and the Blu-ray and DVD copies will arrive on March 31.