Trivia / Darth Plagueis

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• No Origin Stories Allowed: This book is a notable aversion. There was a longtime ban in place by Lucasfilm on writing about Darth Sidious's childhood and apprenticeship to Darth Plagueis, but the ban was eventually lifted with this book's publishing.
• Saved from Development Hell: The novel was originally announced in June 2006 for a 2008 release date, but was put on hold in 2007 as decisions regarding the nature of the Sith and the Rule of Two hadn't been still made and James Luceno had problems on fleshing out and humanizing Emperor Palpatine (who's regarded as evil incarnate with a mysterious past), yet Luceno didn't lose hope that the novel would be unshelved. After the release of Millennium Falcon, Luceno pushed hard to revive the project and ultimately won.
• What Could Have Been:
  • George Lucas was pretty involved in the early iterations of the project, as he had already chosen Darth Plagueis to be a member of the Muun species and deciding that Plagueis should wear a transpirator mask after having an accident at some point of his life. When the novel was revived, Lucas didn't rejoin the project, but his decisions were kept.
    • According to Pablo Hidalgo, Lucas had originally intended for Plagueis to be a Neimoidian to explain Palpatine's ties to the Trade Federation, and had even drawn concept art depicting him as such. Why he was changed to a Muun is unknown.
  • An early version of the story developed during the novel's initial development before being temporarily shelved featured Darth Plagueis and Qui-Gon Jinn in a race for immortality, both unaware that they were sabotaging each other's efforts and pursuing the same goal, with the novel concluding by having Qui-Gon successfully contacting the Whills (whom he mentioned in a Deleted Scene of Revenge of the Sith). When the novel was unshelved, Lucasfilm executive Howard Roffman suggested Luceno to give a greater focus on Palpatine to improve the story. In retrospective, James Luceno told the Star Wars Insider magazine that his original outline was "all over the place, way too long and trying too hard to resolve every loose end".
  • An early draft of the novel had Darth Plagueis discovering Emperor Palpatine's first name but never actually use it as a way of playing to Palpatine's huge ego. While the idea was dropped and Palpatine's first name was never revealed in the Star Wars Legends continuity, Luceno eventually went to reveal Palpatine's first name "Sheev" (which was created by George Lucas himself) in Star Wars: Tarkin, his next novel following Darth Plagueis and part of the new Star Wars Expanded Universe.
  • Reportedly, Luceno was originally reluctant to cast a Bith as a Sith Lord (Darth Tenebrous), but eventually concluded: "What the heck?" One wonders what other species could have filled that role.
  • Regarding the book's climax, Luceno had previously wrote that Darth Plagueis had trascended his need for sleep in Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader even though Palpatine stated that he was killed in his sleep in Revenge of the Sith, hoping to establish a Retcon on Plagueis' death to make it more exciting and less anticlimatic, possibly in a lightsaber duel. However, he was told in no uncertain terms that Plagueis absolutely had to die under those circumstances and that there would be no retcons, leading Luceno to ask if he could establish instead that Plagueis was still alive during The Phantom Menace, a request he was granted. Luceno still had it his way, though, by having Plagueis die in a drunk stupor rather than while he was actually asleep.
  • A follow-up to Darth Plagueis was planned by Luceno at some point, featuring an story starring Emperor Palpatine between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, but Luceno desisted on writing it after resolving to pitch Tarkin instead, and Luceno realized that he could still write about Palpatine while focusing the story on Grand Moff Tarkin. Despite this, Luceno has stated that he's still interested in writing a novel about Palpatine someday, but even if it ever materializes, it would no longer have any connections to Darth Plagueis.
• Word of Saint Paul: When asked during a Facebook Q&A about 11-4D's fate, James Luceno opined that he likes to believe that 11-4D was present not only in a scene of his previous novel Labyrinth of Evil where a couple of droids ambushed the elite Republic squad Aurek Team as they neared Chancellor Palpatine's apartment suite and secret lair, but also when Anakin Skywalker was fitted on the Darth Vader suit in Revenge of the Sith.

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