Star Wars 9 trailer SHOCK: Is Emperor Palpatine BACK? Watch it here

Star Wars have been divided ever since The Last Jedi hit screens in December 2017. Can Episode IX restore balance to the Force and the fandom? Hopes were high for the special Star Wars 9 panel at Star Wars Celebration 2019 in Chicago. Although Mark Hamill and Adam Driver were not there, all the main young stars appeared on stage, accompanied by incredible first images from the movie. And then the trailer showed with a HUGE shock at the end. Is Palpatine back?

Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaacs all had a chat with host Stephen Colbert. Kelly Marie Tran received a standing ovation from the crowd, most likely prompted by her resilience in the face of appaling trolling from a minority of the fandom.

Chewbacca star Joonas Suotano showed heartwarming images of his newborn son. But was then upstaged by JJ Abrams introducing a new droid to the Star Wars galaxy.

And then the trailer played and ended with a chilling sound. Is that really Emperor Palpatine cackling? The hint was driven home when Ian McDiarmid appeared on stage.

STAR WARS 9: THIS IS HOW PALPATINE RETURNS? OFFICIAL GAME ACTUALLY SHOWED IT LAST YEAR 

As the entire hall and watching global audience gasped in shock, the actor took to the stage backlit in meaning red.

Suddenly JJ Abrams’ earlier comments have a terrible new meaning.

He told the crowd: “This movie is about the new generation and what they’ve inherited the light and the dark and asking the questions as they face the greatest evil, ‘Are they ready?'”

Is Palpatine that evil? He was the puppet master from the very beginning in the Prequel Trilogy. Are fans about to discover he has still been somehow manipulating everything, including Snoke and Kylo Ren?

It seems hard to imagine how the Emperor could have survived that fall into the Death Star shaft. However previous Sith have stored their consciousness in objects. 

Also, last year a promo release for the new EA game Star Wars Battlefront 2 showed scenes after the destruction of the Death Star as Palpatine appears before Admiral Versio and his daughter Iden. 

The chilling incarnation of Palpatine is some sort of message that appears pre-recorded in the case of an emergency, but somehow the figure that appears seems to identify the Admiral, suggesting consciousness.

Fans will have eight months to figure out how Palpatine could be returning.