Convention - Comic Con France 2025: Star Wars – Ian McDiarmid Illuminates the Dark Side at Comic Con France 2025

By Mulder, Villepinte, Parc des Expositions, 12 april 0002 to 12 april 2025

This Saturday, the Main Stage of Comic Con France 2025 hosted one of the convention’s most eagerly awaited panels: an hour-long conversation with the legendary Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid, the man who has embodied the chilling mastermind Sheev Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious) across more than four decades of Star Wars storytelling. For the packed crowd, this wasn't just a nostalgic trip through galactic tyranny—it was a rare chance to witness firsthand the refined intelligence and theatrical gravitas of the man behind the Emperor’s iconic sneer. The atmosphere was electric, with fans of all ages gathered not just to celebrate the dark lord of the Sith, but to better understand the craft and journey of the man who brought him to life.

What made this panel especially compelling was the unexpected warmth and candor McDiarmid brought to the stage. Though the Emperor may be best known for his unrelenting malevolence, McDiarmid in person is sharply witty, articulate, and disarmingly modest. He walked the audience through the strange, almost accidental trajectory that led him into the orbit of Star Wars in the early 1980s. Notably, McDiarmid had no aspirations toward a film career at the time—his passion was the stage, and his talents had already earned him high esteem in British theatre circles, particularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was his performance in Sam Shepard’s Seduced—where, heavily aged with prosthetics, he portrayed a Howard Hughes-like recluse—that caught the eye of George Lucas and Richard Marquand, convincing them that he could bring Palpatine’s eerie stillness and aged menace to the screen.

The panel offered fascinating glimpses into the practical challenges and creative decisions that shaped McDiarmid’s unforgettable portrayal. Fans were captivated by the actor's recollection of the intense make-up process on Return of the Jedi, which involved hours of prosthetics that distorted his features into the unforgettable visage of the Emperor. Interestingly, McDiarmid was only in his late 30s at the time, making the transformation all the more impressive. He described how the limitations of the make-up and the stylized dialogue of the script forced him to use his voice and posture as the primary tools to convey power and dread. That iconic rasping snarl? A product of theatrical instinct, and one that became a defining element of the character. As McDiarmid quipped with a smile, "I just leaned into the darkness—and found that it echoed back."

Throughout the discussion, there was a palpable sense of reverence for Palpatine—not just as a villain, but as a complex archetype whose cunning and theatricality have made him more than just a foil for the heroes. McDiarmid spoke with enthusiasm about how the prequel trilogy allowed him to explore the duality of the character, portraying both the charming, soft-spoken Chancellor and the manipulative Sith Lord lurking beneath the surface. Particularly enlightening was his reflection on the joy—and challenge—of playing a role so deeply steeped in Shakespearean themes: ambition, deceit, corruption, and the lust for absolute power. For him, Sidious is not just evil incarnate, but a “diabolical actor” within the story, always performing for his prey and audience alike. That layered performance reached its zenith in Revenge of the Sith, where McDiarmid was called upon not only to deliver some of the saga’s most operatic lines, but also to wield a lightsaber and perform physical combat—a demanding task for an actor in his 60s, which he embraced with theatrical gusto.

The panel also touched on McDiarmid’s surprising return in The Rise of Skywalker, a moment that thrilled fans and stirred considerable debate in the fandom. He was candid about his own surprise at being called back, believing his character’s demise in Return of the Jedi to be final. And yet, as he wryly noted, "In Star Wars, death is often just the beginning of a new story thread." While the return of Palpatine was controversial among some fans, McDiarmid’s portrayal—this time as a decayed, grotesquely tethered husk of dark side power—was once again magnetic, proving that even in the most fantastical corners of the galaxy, charisma and menace go a long way. His performance drew on decades of experience and honed skill, making a character long considered the embodiment of evil feel both ancient and terrifyingly present.

What made the panel unforgettable, however, was the way it blurred the lines between fantasy and legacy. McDiarmid didn’t just speak about the films—he spoke about the cultural shadow Palpatine has cast. His stories about fans recognizing him on the street, sometimes quoting lines like “Unlimited power!” or asking him to whisper dark-side temptations, revealed how deeply the character has sunk into popular culture. He even shared anecdotes from his voice work in animated series and video games, including the surreal joy of voicing a pig version of Palpatine in Angry Birds Star Wars. These stories reminded everyone in the room that while Palpatine may rule through fear, Ian McDiarmid commands affection through craft, humor, and humility.

The long ovation at the end was a testament not only to his legacy within the Star Wars saga, but to his unique place in the wider world of performance. For a role that once began with a quiet casting based on a fringe play, Palpatine has evolved into one of the most iconic villains in cinema history—and McDiarmid has become a legend of the genre. The Comic Con France 2025 panel didn’t just celebrate the Emperor. It paid tribute to the actor whose careful, theatrical control gave darkness its most seductive voice. And in doing so, it reminded everyone that behind every great villain, there is an actor with a story, a process, and a spark of brilliance that turns fiction into myth.

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Photos and video : Boris Colletier / Mulderville