Star Wars finally explains exactly how Palpatine returned, since the movie never bothered

June has been a treat for Star Wars fans.

This month brought us the series premiere of The Acolyte, the third episode of which is out now.

If you haven’t yet tuned into this murder-mystery series pitched as Frozen meets Kill Bill, you’re missing out.

In our review, we said, “The Acolyte has truly got it all. From epic lightsaber duels to adorable droids and everything in between, these are the jigsaw pieces that make Star Wars what it is, and yet [showrunner] Headland places those pieces together in a way that feels both familiar and new.”

Last night also brought us an in-depth look at upcoming open-world RPG Star Wars Outlaws.

As a part of Summer Game Fest’s Days of Play, we had the opportunity to go hands-on with the game, with GAMINGbible’s Sam Cawley writing, “I was blown away by Star Wars Outlaws, not just from the gorgeous environments or the exhilarating gameplay, but because it’s a game that’s clearly found its own identity without the need for a convoluted Force plot or epic lightsaber battles.”

It’s a good time to be a Star Wars fan but amidst all these delicious treats, I want to address something that might be plaguing your mind.

The Rise of Skywalker isn’t by any means a terrible film but it certainly has more than a few creases that could’ve done with ironing out. Refresh your memory if you dare, since it's on Disney Plus.

Perhaps the most glaring is the lack of explanation concerning Emperor Palpatine’s return but worry not.

If you haven’t quite wrapped your head around this plot development, I’m here to explain all.

We sat down with the cast of The Acolyte. Take a look at our interview below.

Prior to the events of The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine had been hiding in the shadows, keeping himself alive via a clone body.

How did he come to occupy this clone body? Well various pieces of Star Wars media basically infer that he uses his power to transfer his spirit.

There’s not exactly an explanation as to how the clone body came to be but we’ve all seen The Clone Wars. Palpatine was likely using a similar technology to what’s used on Kamino.

We’re led to believe that he’s utilising any technology he can get his hands on to prolong the use of this clone body.

Cloning isn’t a new phenomenon in the Star Wars universe but spirit transference is certainly more unusual.

This is where a bit of assumption creeps in. By the time we reach The Rise of Skywalker, Palaptine is ready to reveal himself so the working theory is that the combination of Snoke’s death and perhaps his diminishing ability to maintain his clone body brought on this readiness.

By the time we see Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker, he’s looking a little worse for wear suggesting that indeed, his ability to sustain his spirit in this clone is wearing thin.

This is why Rey and Kylo are lured to Exegol so that Palpatine can acquire their power to help him restore his own.

This explanation still leaves questions. How did Palpatine come to learn to transfer a spirit? Why haven’t we seen this before?

Then again, the Star Wars universe is full of occult groups we know very little about. It’s not out of the question that Palpatine could acquire such an ability.

Let’s hope that when Rey returns in her upcoming Star Wars film, it’ll be within a slightly more sensical plot.