Prior to the release of the first trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, fans weren't aware of Emperor Palpatine's return yet. The teaser included the character's familiar cackle right at the very end which certainly was a surprise to fans. Although they teased his return at the start of the promotion, the cast and crew had to keep it a secret before that, and it was a bit hard for some to do, including stunt coordinator Eunice Huthart.
In a recent interview with ScreenRant, Huthart talked about maintaining the Sith Lord's return a secret and refraining from saying any spoilers. "The Palpatine fight, we were doing our best to always keep that secret," she said. "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."
She recalled a time where they would be rehearsing the scene and accidentally saying Palpatine's name instead of the code name: "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," Huthart continued. "We had code names for scenes, code names for set pieces, come names for everything."
In the scene where Chewbacca got captured by the Knights of Ren, the ship was referred to as the "White Rump." "I'd be going, ‘Alright, the white van needs to back up.' Of course, there was no white van on the set," she said. "But someone might have gone looking for a white van."
"So, I'd say the secrecy part was ridiculous, because everything had a codename," Huthart admitted. "The characters had codenames, and we would forget what name was for what person. That was tough."
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is available on Digital HD. The film is set for release on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K Ultra HD on March 31, 2020.
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