Oscar Isaac just revealed the backstory behind his very memeable line about Palpatine from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Emperor Palpatine gets resurrected in the sequel trilogy. In the final Skywalker Saga film, Isaac, who plays X-wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron, says, “Somehow, Palpatine returned,” a line that’s gone viral online for epitomizing the quality of the dialogue and storytelling in the film series.

During an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Isaac explained that his “Somehow, Palpatine returned” line was added in during reshoots after principal photography had ended. “Those are like those surgical strikes where you come in and they’re scrambling, trying to get everything going,” he divulged.

The line itself was a “new addition right at the end,” at a point in the production when there was “a lot of movement and flux.”

In the moment when filming was taking place, Isaac had no idea that his short three-word line of dialogue about Palpatine would go viral and become a meme. “I committed to the exasperation, that’s for sure,” he jokingly added.

When initial filming ended, Isaac cut his hair, so when it came time to return for reshoots, he had to wear a wig in those scenes. Even if some of the dialogue didn’t translate well on-screen, at least the actor believes that the wig was “pretty good.”

“Those were re-shoots. We had to do reshoots. Because when I look at it, I’m like, the wig’s pretty good. I cut my hair already and had come in. Those are like those surgical strikes where you come in and they’re scrambling, trying to get everything going.

“That was like a new addition right at the end. So there was a lot of movement and flux throughout that whole thing. But had you asked me at that moment if I thought that was going to be the line, I wouldn’t have known. Hey, man, I committed to the exasperation, that’s for sure.”

Palpatine perishes at the hands of Darth Vader during the original trilogy, right before the destruction of the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.

The newer trilogy, which takes place after Return of the Jedi, slowly starts reintroducing Palpatine when Ray hears his voice in a vision during The Force Awakens. Then in The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine and Rey come face to face, with the villain being killed once again.

Reshoots are a normal part of the filming process, but production on Disney’s sequel trilogy had various problems, especially during the final movie, which saw The Force Awakens‘ J.J. Abrams return as director after Colin Trevorrow dropped out of the project amid issues with the script.

When it was finally released in December 2019, The Rise of Skywalker earned the lowest Rotten Tomatoes rating out of all the Star Wars movies at 51%, compared to 93% and 91% for the first two sequel films.

While the threequel grossed over $1 billion at the box office, it was the lowest-performing of the three installments, with The Force Awakens grossing $2.07 billion and The Last Jedi $1.3 billion.

Isaac’s co-stars in the film include Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong’o, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams.

After The Rise of Skywalker was released, Isaac went on to star in films and shows like The Addams Family 2, Dune, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Frankenstein, Scenes from a Marriage, Marvel’s Moon Knight and Beef.

After a big-screen hiatus in recent years following Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the franchise is returning to movie theaters this May with the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu, followed by Star Wars: Starfighter in May 2027.