Does Palpatine appear in Obi Wan Kenobi?

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 6.

Palpatine is seen as the big bad of the Star Wars universe, always manipulating events behind the scenes. And this week’s episode of Obi Wan Kenobi finally answered the audience’s question of: Will we see Palpatine in Obi Wan Kenobi?

The finale of Obi Wan Kenobi sees Obi Wan and Darth Vader duelling each other in a frenetic duel, culminating in Obi Wan slashing Vader’s mask in half, revealing Hayden Christensen. Upon seeing this, Obi tries to reach out to his old friend, and tries to pull him back to the light. However, Vader doesn’t waiver in his commitment to the Dark Side.

After Obi Wan leaves him, Vader goes back to his castle on Mustafar, and reports to none other than his master, Lord Sidious via hologram

. Ian McDiarmid reprises his role as Palpatine, questioning Vader’s loyalty, further twisting the knife in. It’s only a cameo role, as he only appears in one, brief scene in the finale, but it helps remind the audience of Palpatine’s manipulative prowess.

The scene is also a clever inversion of what audiences see in Episode Three. In this scene, audiences see a hologram of Reva reporting to Vader, her master, about her failure to stop Obi Wan escaping. Vader is in a more powerful position here, presented as king of the castle.

But in the scene where Vader reports on his failure to Palpatine, it reminds audiences that even this king must report to an emperor.

Audiences can next see Palpatine in the upcoming Star Wars:The Bad Batch season two, with Ian McDiarmid once again reprising his role as Palpatine. While Palpatine’s appearance in Andor hasn’t yet been confirmed, a cameo is highly likely as the Andor trailer reveals that the Imperial Senate and Coruscant will be a location in the show.

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