I still don’t think introducing Palpatine so early really works, JakeRyan. It raises the uncomfortable question of why Palpatine’s name is never spoken during the entire runtime of TLJ, even among the First Order. It feels too much like a fan edit, and not enough like something intended by the filmmakers.

My suggestion for connecting Palpatine to the first two movies would be just adding subtle hints, like Hal did in his edits. He did a great job adding teases of Palpatine without making it too obvious. Then, you could include Kylo meeting Palpatine at the very end of TLJ, as a “one year later” flash forward. It would be a nice sequel hook to get people excited for the next movie, and it would allow for Palpatine to be introduced earlier without feeling weird.