Stunt Coordinator Eunice Huthart has revealed how Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker kept Palaptine's return a secret. As secretive as Disney and Lucasfilm were throughout production on The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, they upped their game ever further for the sequel trilogy's finale (which doubled as the conclusion to the nine-part Skywalker Saga). Ahead of Star Wars Celebration 2019, fans has little to no idea what the movie would even be about, much less any hint of characters coming back from the grave. As a result, Palpatine's reveal in The Rise of Skywalker's teaser was not only a surprise for many, but an exciting one at that.
Much like the film, Palpatine's role in the movie garnered a far more mixed response when The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters. Since then, the conversation surrounding the character has focused less on his actual appearance and more on the new details shed on Palpatine's resurrection in The Rise of Skywalker novelization (like the fact he's a clone) that were only hinted at in the film, if not left out altogether. Now, one of the key crew members who worked on the movie has provided some insight into how the whole thing was kept under-wraps to begin with.
During an interview with Screen Rant, Huthart talked about maintaining secrecy and preventing spoilers from leaking throughout production on The Rise of Skywalker. She went on to discuss the use of codenames and how they were important to keeping Palpatine's return a secret.
The Palpatine fight, we were doing our best to always keep that secret. It was really hard for me, to be honest. I was probably the one that was always messing up, because we had code names for everybody, and I kept on forgetting the code names. We'd be rehearsing something, and I'd be like, "Now that's when Palpatine comes in, guys." And then there'd be [someone] walking past like, "Oh, is Palpatine in it?" And I'd be like, "Oh no, did I say - ? No, it's not."
I was the one who messed up most. We had code names for everything that I kept always forgetting all the time. We had code names for scenes, code names for set pieces, come names for everything. When we were in Jordan and Chewbacca got captured by the Knights of Ren and got sent into the air with the Storm Troopers? That spaceship was called the White Rump, and I'd be going, "Alright, the white van needs to back up." ... Of course, there was no white van on the set, but someone might have gone looking for a white van.
So, I'd say the secrecy part was ridiculous, because everything had a codename. The characters had codenames, and we would forget what name was for what person. That was tough.
These types of security measures have become pretty standard for studio tentpoles (especially the Disney kind), and there's no denying they got the job done for The Rise of Skywalker. Still, one could fairly argue the film was hurt by its secrecy as much as it was helped. Many felt The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi should've included more set-up for Palpatine's return in the movie; director J.J. Abrams even considered reintroducing Palpatine as a clone in The Force Awakens at one point, before later abandoning the idea. If he hadn't, it might've benefitted the sequel trilogy as a whole and made The Rise of Skywalker feel less disjointed. Not to mention, there wouldn't have been the need for quite as much "ridiculous" secrecy as Huthart said there was on-set.
This isn't a criticism unique to Abrams' Star Wars movies, either. For years, the filmmaker has been taken to task for playing up the secrecy around his projects - whether they're part of a franchise or something original like Super 8 - too much, to the point where it either hurts their storytelling or leads to an underwhelming payoff (see also: the John Harrison/Khan debacle with Star Trek Into Darkness). If anything, the reactions to Palpatine's return in The Rise of Skywalker just go to show: all this secrecy really isn't worth it in the end. Hopefully, Disney and Lucasfilm will take that lesson to heart as they plan out the upcoming phase of Star Wars movies.