I’ve started wondering if resurrecting Palpatine might have been in George’s original treatments. There is one particular piece of concept art in the TFA book that shows Darth Talon posing with a dark, ethereal figure standing over her (pg. 27). I wonder how much the artists knew about this “Uber” character beyond the him/it being powerful in the dark side that and pulling the strings from the shadows. It could be similar to how I think the Jedi Killer might have always been Han and Leia’s son, but it was kept secret for sometime before they told the artists, which has led some people to speculate that young Solo and Jedi Killer being different characters at some point during development.
Maybe the Talon-character was a servant of Palpatine, and was ordered by him to seduce the son of Han and Leia (Seduction 001-005, pg. 35). If IX reveals that Snoke was somehow a pawn of Palpatine, then Snoke may have been the merger of the ‘Uber’ and ‘Seducer’ characters, since Snoke functioned like Talon by seducing young Solo to the dark side.
There is another piece called Jedi Killer Contemplation, with this quote from one concept artist, Alzmann. “This was back when the MacGuffin was the melted helmet of Vader…” (pg. 79)
There’s also several pieces of the Death Star II submerged underwater, which we know they are bringing back into IX. Regarding one piece, Ian McCaig says, “So when the adventure is over, Kira finds a hidden map inside the Emperor’s tower of the second Death Star. And the map tells you where the Jedi are and where Luke is hiding.” (pg. 34). While the MacGuffin clearly evolved by this point, I can’t help but wonder if the importance of Vader’s helmet and the site of the Emperor’s “death” may have played some role involving Palpatine himself.
So let’s say that Abrams, Johnson and Kennedy weren’t 100% sure about bringing back Palpatine when producing TFA and TLJ, if the idea was at least there from the beginning, in the form of George’s treatments, then that might be why she is saying it was in the plans from the start (even though they obviously decided to diverge from his treatments while developing TFA).
But would George actually bring back Palpatine? It isn’t impossible. Tom Veitch, the writer of the Dark Empire comic, said the original antagonist of the story was going to be a Vader imposter, but George himself had him change it to the clone of Palpatine. So clearly Palpatine’s resurrection wasn’t blasphemy to even the creator.
While clearly context has changed significantly from when he first had the idea of Episodes 7-9, before 6 was released, he had the idea of 6 culminating in just a confrontation with Vader, and 7-9 being about Luke finding his long-lost sister and finally confronting the Emperor in Episode IX. It makes me think of early drafts of Star Wars, where the climax was reminiscent of ROTJ, where natives (Wookiees) helped play a role in destroying the Death Star. George realized it was too much for one movie, and while not entirely accurate, I think this is where George says he split the one movie into three movies. But instead of inventing a new climax for the third movie, he brought back the natives idea, as well as another Death Star that must be destroyed. So if this is George’s idea, he’s basically done the same thing, but with Palpatine.
Abrams has said they consulted George for this film, which gives some credence to the idea that bringing back Palpatine is somehow related to Lucas. Also, if bringing back Palpatine is an idea that came from George himself, it would give legitimacy to this plot point that could be controversial to some fans. It wouldn’t be the first time fans have been perplexed by George’s ideas (midichlorians, Ahsoka Tano, etc.), but if the man who invented the Chosen One prophecy doesn’t think resurrecting the last Sith undermines that idea, then I think some fans who feel skeptical are more likely to eventually accept it.