Let me put it this way: when he says that there “were always whispers” that he was searching for ways to live forever, that retcons the original trilogy. In the OT, nearly all of the galaxy thought Palpatine was a normal dude that got disfigured by the Jedi. And Palpatine would have only ever shared his cloning plans with his Sith loyalists on Exegol. So there is no reason why there would be rumors around the known galaxy of that type.
That said, I think the most important thing here is removing the lightsaber appearing in that shot. Do you believe that is possible?