Frank Oz, the legendary man behind Yoda as well as so many of the Muppets you know and love recently sat down to talk with Variety about the legacy of those amazing culturally iconic felt puppets, The Muppets. As will happen to anyone that is or has been in anyway associated with Star Wars, the conversation eventually made it's way around to the galazy far, far away. When asked about the rumors surrounding him reprising his role as Yoda Oz responded with the ultimate non-answer answer, I can't talk about it:
Obviously if he had no involvement he wouldn't have been asked not to talk about it, furthermore he specifically says "To be true to the people who asked me" so people have asked him, says it right there. My guess is that we will get a voice-over of Yoda, not full force ghost as you'd then have to involve Obi-Wan and Anakin (which after Lucas's revisions is Hayden Christensen and there's no way any filmmaker is doing that). His scenes will be on Ach-To, the island where Luke was found and supposed oldest of the Jedi temples. This is awesome on any number of levels but mostly because it will mean that Luke didn't abandon the force of the Jedi after Kylo Ren's defection but has been here meditating and communing with Yoda about how to proceed. That's my guess anyway.I feel like I’m a prisoner at war here, and I can only give you my name, rank and serial number. To be true to the people who asked me, and they are kind of my family, I have to say I’ve been asked not to talk about it. I love Yoda. I would be happy to talk to you about it at the time they let me.
Deviating from societal norm Oz also went on to, kind of, throw shade at J.J. Abrams at least in as much as he thinks Lucas would have done a film with more of an arch and more moral implications which to me translates to a fuller film, here's what he had to say regarding The Force Awakens
I thought J.J. Abrams did a great job of synthesizing all this information. It was a tough thing for J.J. to be asked to do—to transition to a new family of “Star Wars” and still pay homage and respect to the others. It’s different from the way that George Lucas would have done it. George would probably have had a more overall arch that would follow the other stories and have a moral depth. But, my gosh, what J.J. did was really entertaining. It was so much fun.Ok, maybe he's not throwing shade as much as he's saying Lucas would have made a deeper film. In any event we can probably follow the odds to saying we haven't seen (or heard) the last of Yoda. What a time to be a Star Wars fan!
