Is Emperor Palpatine Returning for 'Star Wars: Episode VII'?

Disney's D23 came and went without a drop of concrete info on Star Wars: Episode VII, upsetting a number of fanboys who must have shown up only for that purpose. After they were done throwing their Star Wars toys around like children and booing Disney chairman Alan Horn, the show proceeded without a hitch, and the rumors about the film certainly haven't stopped. The latest involves the potential, but highly unlikely, return of Emperor Palpatine.

A source over at Jedi News says that Ian McDiarmid, who has been portraying Palpatine since Return of the Jedi, is "likely" to be returning for J.J. Abrams' film. They take it a step further by speculating whether Palpatine would be the original or some sort of clone. In the expanded Star Wars universe, Palpatine's spirit managed to survive his death, going on to possess a number of different hosts. Latino Review tweaks it a little by saying he'll be a ghost of some sort.

McDiarmid has spoken often about the role, once saying that he was sure Palpatine was dead for good and that he didn't think there was a future for him as part of the new trilogy. But most recently he expressed interest in returning, telling USA Today back in May that "I guess that means he can’t survive and do Episode 7, unless of course he’d been clever enough to clone himself. He’s certainly clever enough, but I don’t know if he had that idea or not."

We've heard that Michael Arndt's screenplay won't follow any particular narrative from the Star Wars expanded universe, so that makes the clone storyline unlikely unless there's a significant twist.  Star Wars: Episode VII begins production early next year, and is expected to open in the summer of 2015.