Who is Matt Smith playing in Star Wars? Here’s one big clue

If you want to trigger a Star Wars fan, all you need to do is say three words: “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” While plenty of people were excited to the resurrection of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) in Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, we can pretty much all agree that the way Lucasfilm decided to bring him back was lazy and nonsensical to the point of being insulting. However, as one recent piece of Star Wars news reminds us, ol’ Palp’s return to the franchise was almost radically different.

Deadline recently reported that Matt Smith will join the cast of Star Wars: Starfighter, an upcoming movie from director Shawn Levy and set to star Ryan Gosling. Smith will apparently play the film’s villain. We know next to nothing about Starfighter with a few small exceptions: It takes place roughly five years after The Rise of Skywalker, Mia Goth (X, Pearl, MaXXXine) is also in the movie, and it was written by Jonathan Tropper (Banshee, Warrior, Your Friends and Neighbors).

What’s interesting about all this, however, is that Matt Smith was technically already supposed to be in Star Wars. Back in 2018, Variety reported that Smith had been cast in Rise of Skywalker. Subsequent rumors suggested he’d be playing a young clone of Emperor Palpatine, and in one interview, Smith went so far as to say his role in the film was supposed to be “transformative,” but wouldn’t comment on any Palpatine speculation at the time.

Of course, as we all know, Smith wasn’t in Rise of the Skywalker at all. Instead, original Palpatine actor Ian MacDiarmid returned, doing his best to ham up an otherwise dry and dull movie. It’s unclear what happened to Matt Smith’s reported role in that film, and we may never know for sure, but one thing is almost certain: He won’t be playing Palpatine in Star Wars: Starfighter.