Ian McDiarmid is at the 2014 London Film & Comic Con, and during a Q&A panel the subject of Star Wars came up, where Ian McDiarmid sets the record straight about whether or not Palpatine will be in Episode VII, and about wanting to play the character again in future Star Wars movies.
After watching the video, I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be seeing Palpatine in Episode VII. I also liked how he even mentioned that Palpatine is not showing up in the movie as a reincarnation or hologram. He has all the different possibilities covered! But hopefully we’ll see him return as Palpatine in a future stand-alone movie, because like he said, I don’t want to see anyone else play the part of Palpatine either.