‘Matt Smith Confirms He Almost Appeared in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ in a Big Role’:-
https://collider.com/matt-smith-star-wars-rise-of-skywalker-confirmed
&
'Matt Smith Says His Cut Star Wars Character Was A ‘Big Shift’ In The History Of The Franchise’:-
Matt Smith in quotes…
“We were close to me being in [‘The Rise of Skywalker’], but then it just never quite happened. I think the thing they were thinking of me for, eventually the part became obsolete and they didn’t need it. So I never got to be in ‘Star Wars.’ There we are.”
“…it was a pretty groovy thing. It was a really groovy part in concept. It was a big thing, a big story detail. You know, a transformative ‘Star Wars’ story detail. But it never quite got over the line.”
‘The Happy Sad Podcast’ - with Matt Smith (a 39 minute chat):-
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matt-smith-vol-ii/id827905050?i=1000540602965 (just click on play to listen - free)
a 2 minute video clip of the interview with Matt Smith - https://twitter.com/joshuahorowitz/status/1455864856230436868
I wonder what the role was - a younger version or a clone of Palpatine, Palp’s son, or other?