Matt Smith says he’s not in ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ after all

Buried in a recent interview with The LA Times, Matt Smith made the fairly startling revelation that’s he’s not in Star Wars: Episode IX – despite reports to the contrary, and rumours he was playing a young Palpatine in the film.

Read more: Matt Smith joins Jared Leto in Spider-Man spin-off ‘Morbius’

But, when asked if he’s in the conclusion to the Skywalker saga, he says: “As far as I can tell, I’m definitely not.”

Now, Smith might be being slightly playful here. If we were to apply the Star Wars rules of ‘what I told you was true, from a certain point of view’ to his statement, he’s not actually saying that he isn’t in it, he’s saying ‘as far as I can tell’ he’s not in it.

He’s an actor; not a writer, director or editor, so for all he knows, he’s been cut out of the film, so what he’s saying is sort of true.

And if he is in it, it’s not like this would be the first JJ Abrams movie to start the marketing drive with a load of massive lies. Remember when everyone told us Khan wasn’t in Star Trek: Into Darkness? Yeah, we remember how that turned out, don’t we?

Also, the interview opens with a discussion about how Smith is good at keeping secrets around the various geek properties he’s involved with – “That’s no big deal,” he says. “You just keep your mouth shut.” – we think he might just be being super-careful when discussing a film that doesn’t even have a title or a trailer yet.

We can expect a lot more of these sorts of fun and games as we start to build towards Star Wars: Episode IX’s release. It hits UK cinemas on 19 December.