There have been a lot of Star Wars Episode VII rumours lately, but this is arguably the most exciting and intriguing one to date! According to Latino-Review, the J.J. Abrams helmed follow-up to Return of the Jedi will not only feature a number of new villains, but also the reveal that the one pulling the strings is Emperor Palpatine.

Though we saw Darth Vader sacrifice himself to throw The Emperor to his apparent death, it could be that he was somehow rescued as a fair amount of time passed between that and Lando blowing up the Death Star (so much so that Luke was able to unmask and say goodbye to his father before escaping).

Does bringing the iconic Star Wars villain back make Vader’s death pointless? Not really, because he still saved his son, and the fact that The Emperor is still alive would be a huge twist/reveal. Confusingly, it apparently won’t be Ian Mcdiarmid who plays him this time, though the Expanded Universe novels had plenty of explanations for how he might come back, including cloning. It’s possible that Abrams will have turned to these for inspiration!

There’s also talk of that cyborg-looking villain actually being Palpatine (you can see that apparently leaked piece of concept art by clicking here), but how this all fits in to what we’ve heard about Star Wars Episode VII so far isn’t easy to figure out. Could rumoured baddies The Inquisitors have brought The Emperor back?

That’s certainly one theory, especially as it’s apparently up to them to serve as the protectors of the Sith Order. What do you guys think about The Emperor possibly returning in Star Wars Episode VII?