Palpatine | Behind The Scenes History

beehive from the very beginning of the original Star Wars movies writing process George Lucas had an architect of evil in mind one that would eventually develop into Emperor Palpatine that the emperor was initially conceived with a much different personality originally the character was neither a for Caesar nor political mastermind instead he was a corrupt politician elevated by his ministers first a president of the Republic and then to Emperor in short he was a puppet of the Imperial bureaucracy rather than its puppet master the earliest mention of a figure resembling Palpatine dates to early 1973 when a list of potential character names compiled by Lucas included and Emperor Ford Xerces the 12th a name which was presumably inspired by the historical Persian kings Aziz the great and preferred Xerces the 12th soon developed into Alexander Xerces the 12th the character known as the Emperor of the karta the first rough draft of Star Wars completed in May of 1974 identified the Emperor with the new name caused a sheet who is described as ruling from the Imperial capsule of Alderaan although caused a sheet would eventually evolve into Palpatine there's no evidence from the rough draft that he was force sensitive in any way in the official first draft the Star Wars completed only a few months later the Emperor was renamed son Hutt but remained otherwise unchanged in terms of speech and actions interestingly son Hutt was categorized as a hoot label which went on to be redeveloped and repurposed for the Hutt species other clans and species mention in the first draft included the Dino got a term for the Jedi rather than a tentacle monster and the Jawas who originally imagined as furry gray beasts the second draft of Star Wars dated January 1975 mentioned the force for the first time with the slightly less catchy name the force of others as well as a ferocious sect of mercenary warriors known as the Black Knights of the Sith despite the first Galactic Empire also being name dropped all mention of a specific Emperor was retracted in its opening crore August 1975 s third draft sounds much more like the finished article describing sinister agents of the Emperor known as Dark Lords of the Sith having hunted down Jedi Knights who were no longer listed as Dino ger or Jedi Bendu the fourth draft dated January 1976 again failed to name-drop a specific emperor in his opening crawl nevertheless the draft did state that the Empire was constructing a sinister new battle station of course referencing what would become known as the Death Star the 4th drafts on edited crawl actually appeared in the Marvel Comics series that was released ahead of the film the final theatrical crawl arose after an argument between George Lucas and fellow director Brian De Palma in a Chinese restaurant in early 1977 Lucas conceded that the fourth draweth Scrolls too convoluted and quickly penned the ascending golden paragraphs that we know and love today in its place in the film itself however the only mention made about the Emperor was a passing comment by grand moff tarkin that did little to give fans a sense of the mysterious man behind the Galactic Empire the last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away the original Star Wars novelization from 1976 initially stated that the Emperor was a puppet much like in the film's original rough draft the novelization also saw the first use of the name Palpatine in its prologue believed to be the only part of the novel written by Lucas himself the origin of the name it's not known for certain as Lucas was friends with Martin Scorsese it may have been a homage to the character of Senator palentine in taxi driver which was released just four months before the book in 1976 evidence for the taxi driver link also exists in Revenge of the Sith when Palpatine draws his lightsaber from within his sleeve in a potential nod to Robert De Niro's iconic gun see nevertheless given Lucas's love for utilizing the Latin language to create character names it's more likely that the word Palpatine owes from either the Palatine Hill of Imperial Rome or from the turn palpate meaning to stroke caress or have one's fingers in everything following the release of Star Wars in may 1977 George Lucas began to replace the notion of a weak and foolhardy emperor with the ruthless mastermind representing the ultimate personification of evil in the Star Wars universe while writing 1980s The Empire Strikes Back Lucas came up with the idea of combining Anakin Skywalker with Darth Vader it always been envisioned as separate characters beforehand that change meant that at some point in the past Vader had to be corrupted and turned to the dark side to compensate Lucas Rhee conceived the Emperor's a Sith Lord in his own right and imagined that Palpatine had risen to power in part by seducing anakin into becoming Darth Vader in developing this new sort of emperor Lucas took direct inspiration from the politics of the day the main political model for Palpatine was former President Richard Nixon both because his presidency was known as the imperial presidency but also due to the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War like the former president the Emperor eise's to power in the midst of an orchestrated war like Nixon the Emperor defeated enemies through shady and illegal dealings the Galactic Civil War between the rebels and the Empire mirrors the culture war that erupted in the u.s. during Nixon's presidency the idea of a mighty imperialistic force going up against a ragtag group of freedom fighters may also have reflected the u.s. armies fight against the Vietcong itself as a disguised ante vietnam war message other historical figures such as Julius Caesar Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler were also used as inspiration the Hitler similarities are particularly evident from Palpatine's position as Chancellor and his use of emergency powers to cement his own Bower in the director's commentary for Return of the Jedi George Lucas cited his inspiration for the scene where Palpatine is greeted by hundreds of stormtroopers on the second Death Star is the May Day parades of the Soviet Union while in Star Wars and history published by Lucasfilm Palpatine's consolidation of power is described as being similar to that of Roman politician or Gustus the heir to Caesar also known as Octavian both or Gustus and Palpatine legitimized authoritarian rule but complaining the corruption in the Senate was hampering the powers of the head of state both pressured the Senate's had grant extraordinary powers to deal with a crisis falsely claiming that they would rescind those powers once the crisis was over and both relied on their influence over the military to remain in control Palpatine's physical form was a lot less thought-out than his political machinations during the pre-production stage of the Empire Strikes Back Lucas didn't give much thought to how the Emperor would appear at that time the rest of the original trilogy was set feature Darth Vader as his salt agonist leaving the Empress fate for a potential sequel trilogy the holographic Emperor seen in the original Empire Strikes Back was played by American actress and painter Marjorie Eaton who wore deformed latex masks on her face in order to make the character more unsettling Lucas and director Irvin Kershner decided to superimpose the eyes of a chimpanzee over the to give the character an unsettling alien look Palpatine's clothing an empire may have been inspired by the Wicked Witch from Snow White in the Seven Dwarves as well as the character death from the 1957 Swedish film the Seventh Seal Eaton's performance was overdubbed with the voice of Clive Revell a musical theater actor from New Zealand who gave a particularly unsettling tone to the man behind the Galactic Empire yes he would be a great while legendary concept artist Ralph McQuarrie works on early concepts for Return of the Jedi he didn't stay on until the completion of the film as he had before as a result many of the production paintings he created were for early scenes that didn't make it into the film such as these sequences of Vader taking Luke to meet the emperor in his volcanic layer beneath a grand Cathedral on Imperial City which would eventually evolve into chorus ons this image shows how Ralph McQuarrie originally envisioned the Emperor for Jedi while this picture shows how he revised the depiction to better match the Emperor's scene in the film before filming began on Star Wars third instalment costume designer and concept artist Iggy Gerard Rodgers updated Palpatine's physical appearance the red robe depicted in the concept was eventually used for Palpatine scenes towards the end of Revenge of the Sith the design if the Empress royal guards in the film came from sketches by designer Neela Radha's Chamorro the conceptual drawings varied from Centurion like warriors to priests like monks that a common thread tying the designs together was their now iconic deep red hue the guards were depicted as the Emperor's personal protectors hand-picked from the very best of his millions of soldiers also featured with the Emperor's personal advisers sim Alou Janice Grich Addis and four others these six men were also designed by Neil Arad his Chimaira who felt their look was one of the most exciting designs from Jedi as it hinted at the kind of world the Emperor lived Radha's Jumeirah based the look on that of Catholic Bishops with reddish coloring and ornate head pieces for Jedi the Emperor was originally supposed to be played by veteran English stage actor Alan Webb who is 75 at the time but just as filming was about to commence Webb fell ill and wrote a letter of apology to director Richard Marquand saying the part was too big for him Webb died shortly after On June 22nd 1982 a year before the film's release with Webb out of the picture a number of performance read for the role of the Emperor Jedi including Gandhi actor Ben Kingsley who is considered to English for the part with filming behind schedule Marc Wonka Scottish thespian Ian McDermott as the Emperor without so much as a single audition all because of his vocal similarities to Empire Strikes Back voice actor Clive Revell McDermott had been spotted by a casting director in London while playing Howard Hughes in the Sam Sheppard play seduced he quickly convinced both Lucas and Marquand to let him devise his own vocal style for the Emperor taking inspiration from the Japanese technique of projection the method gave McDermott a low creaky voice when he felt appropriate for the character despite betraying Palpatine as an elderly man where Dermot was just 38 in his scenes from Return of the Jedi the Scots had never played a leading role in a feature film though he had made minor appearances in films such as 1980 once Dragon Slayer [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] a hilarious tidbit from the filming of Return of the Jedi is that when the mechanical system used to rotate Palpatine's throwing began acting up but Dermot had to use his feet to stop the Emperor embarrassing himself and spinning too far another tidbit is what has become known as the Empress head slug or slugs referring to a solid black area on the edge of his hood the dark spot is actually a bit of a hand-drawn animation although no definitive answer exists Pablo Hidalgo learned from someone at Lucasfilm that the spot was likely added in post-production because of a strange fold near the Empress Temple they drew attention away from his eyes after his work on Jedi was complete Ian McDermott returns his passion as a professional stage performer in London McDermott was surprised then when Lucas approached him 16 years later to reprise his role as Palpatine in a prequel trilogy having assumed that Lucas would cast a less mature actor as the young Palpatine but ironically having betrayed the Emperor as an old man when he was relatively young in his late thirties MacDermid was given the chance to play young Palpatine in his 50s for Palpatine's return he was given the SIF name Darth Sidious from the word insidious we need to proceed in a gradual subtle way with harmful effects Lucas clearly liked to drop the first syllable of words to name his antagonists having derived Darth Vader from the word invader the true identity of Sidious The Phantom Menace was left the mystery in Episode one and it's easy to forget that in 1999 in the early 2000s many still didn't believe the Sidious and Palpatine were one and the same although most fans believe the two characters were the same person debate was fueled by the fact suspiciously that Darth Sidious did not appear in the end credits Palpatine zark in the prequel films required McDermott to play two dimensions of the same character beginning as a psycho font and flatterer in the first two films before taking on much darker interpretation of Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith early script drafts featured a scene in which Palpatine revealed that he used knowledge gained from Darth Plagueis to manipulate the midi-chlorians and create life Palpatine had selected Shmi Skywalker's a host and used the force to conceive Anakin as a child in these early drafts of Sith outputing used the revelation to bait Anakin into turning to the dark side Palpatine revealed that in essence he was Anakin's father Lucas ultimately chose a more ambiguous plot point instead in which Palpatine's role in Anakin's conception is merely hinted and the focus is instead on Anakin's love for Padme as the catalyst for his fall from grace speaking of Padme there's also evidence that Sidious may have had a hand in her mysterious death all to ensure Anakin's turned to darkness one theory suggests that Palpatine literally drained the living force out of Padme to keep Vader alive despite his horrific injuries on Mustafar Palpatine certainly had motive had Padme survived and had Anakin's children Anakin wouldn't have needed the dark side any more even though the only reason he turned to the dark side in the first place was to save Padme from dying in childbirth Vader's love for his son eventually made him turn back to the light and Palpatine likely new family was his apprentices greatest weakness instead Palpatine told Vader that he killed his own wife now Vader hated himself for killing Padme and his two children and that hatred and anger kept him in line also don't forget it was Palpatine who informed Vader of his wife's death how exactly did he know she was hidden away in a different system he was certain of her passing that may be why he smiles as Vader crushes the Droid and machines around him after learning of Padme death as Palpatine in that moment had accomplished his goal of breaking Vader with self-hatred and guilts when reading the script for episode three MacDermid noticed the film demanded more action from his character than ever before Palpatine was given his own lightsaber with concept artist designing a hilts quite unlike any seen before to represent Palpatine's unlimited [Music] lightsaber combat was certainly a challenge for the then 60-year old MacDermot who like his co-stars took fencing lessons to prepare the close-up shots and non acrobatic sequences of the duel between Palpatine and mace Windu were performed by McDermott himself while advanced lightsaber sequences were performed by stunt doubles bob pals and carl Rowling the latter of which having also performed as Count Dooku and General Grievous in previous action scenes much like Christopher Lee Rowling's face was replaced in post-production bio McDermott's Sebastian Dickens performed Palpatine's acrobatics but when the Emperor broke the laws of physics a digital stunt double was used for his most inhuman and spectacular movements MacDermid required very little makeup in the Phantom Menace in attack of the clones however transforming him into the Emperor Revenge of the Sith as with the sign of the Jedi required extensive maker it typically took around four hours to transform The Scotsman into the Emperor but by the end of filming on Episode three makeup artists were able to bring that number down to two and a half Palpatine's wardrobe tailored by costume designer Trisha Biggar played an important part in the development the character throughout the prequels his clothes became more extravagant film by film in order to illustrate the trappings of power his six prequel costumes also got progressively darker as he slowly reveals his connection to the dark side moving from grays and browns to dark reds and blacks despite a relatively hostile reception to the prequels at large McDermott's performances Palpatine was generally well received by critics and remains just as big a part of pop culture today as back in the early 2000s all thanks to the power of the meme but that's not a story the Jedi would tell you [Music] for the 2004 DVD re-release of the original trilogy Palpatine scene and The Empire Strikes Back was reshot with Ian McDermott playing the Emperor Rick dis with new lines written and recorded for both McDermott and James Earl Jones as Darth Vader this reshoot was shot during a production of Revenge of the Sith and missed part of George Lucas's infamous efforts to create continuity between his two trilogies a decade later in 2014 Palpatine was finally granted a cannon first named chief in James lucina's novel Tarkin McDermid had expressed interest in recent years in reprising the role of Palpatine for the live-action Star Wars underworld TV series that never got off the ground but nevertheless the character's story has been expanded in a number of novels comics and TV series since Nick Jameson who voiced Palpatine in the video game Star Wars TIE Fighter Star Wars galactic battlegrounds and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 also voiced the character in the first Clone Wars cartoon from 2003 in the subsequent Clone Wars film and animated TV series Palpatine was voiced by Ian Abercrombie from 2008 until his death in 2012 and by Tim Curry from 2012 to 2014 while in Star Wars rebels Palpatine was voiced by Sam Witwer who also voiced the character in the Force Unleashed video games as well as Starkiller himself which were further returned as Palpatine along with more for EA's reboot of stars Battlefront battlefront whose single-player campaign finally revealed the emperor's plan in the event of his death operation cinder a means of destroying several Imperial planets just weeks after the Battle of Endor the operation was part of the contingency a strategy devised by Palpatine to ensure that his empire would not outlive him Palpatine was even mentioned by Luke Skywalker in the last Jedi cities to rise create the Empire and it remains to be seen exactly how Palpatine will be involved in fresh Star Wars stories going forward if at all but as one of the most important figures in galactic history we surely haven't seen the last of sheave just yet you

Channel: Behind Star Wars

Views: 464,993

Keywords: Palpatine, The Emperor, Darth Sidious, Sheev, Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars, Behind the Scenes, The Making Of, Star Wars history, The Last Jedi, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Clone Wars, Ian McDiarmid, Darth Vader, Video Essay, George Lucas, Richard Marquand, Clive Revill, Ralph McQuarrie, Concept Art

Id: 6Q-VpUQn1ao

Length: 21min 48sec (1308 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 02 2018