Okay, so this is most likely excessive, but hear me out.
If we’re talking canon here, Rey’s father is less of an actual son of Palpatine, and more of a “son” in that he is a clone originally created to eventually house Palpatine’s consciousness. Since this edit is already emphasizing the cloning aspect of Palpatine on Exegol, it would be a real “chef’s kiss” moment if Rey’s father was deepfaked to have Ian McDiarmid’s facial features. It would also help remedy the fact that, because of how the theatrical movie plays out, we have all imagined old and disfigured Palps having sex with Rey’s grandmother and those thoughts are best kept in the recesses of our subconscious.
I know this is a bit late, and maybe not relevant to Hal’s cut specifically, but I was reminded of this comment today while watching the v2 workprint (which is great btw, Hal, as are the other planned changes).
If anyone really wants to lean into canon with the Palpatine clone thing for an edit of the movie, the absolute simplest, easiest way to do it, without deepfake special effects, is to just dub over two little words of dialog.
Kylo Ren to Rey in the hangar, original:
“My mother was the daughter of Vader. Your father was the son of the Emperor.”
Kylo to Rey in the hangar, edited:
“My mother was the daughter of Vader. Your father was a clone of the Emperor.”
Does this raise weird questions since it’s not elaborated on further? Maybe, but so does him having a son, and if anything this helps further cement the whole Palpatine is back from the dead because his spirit is in one of several clone bodies thing that the original movie glosses over.