How Yoda Was Almost Played By A Monkey In 'Star Wars'

Master Yoda is one of the most powerful and well known characters throughout the entire Star Wars franchise. The little green alien creature was first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in the original trilogy. And as much as he is instantly recognizable now, we almost got something completely different.

At the beginning of Episode V, Luke is instructed to go to the Dagobah System in search of Yoda by Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force ghost. Obi-Wan sates Yoda will continue to train Luke in the Force, just as he did him (poor Qui-Gon) and help him further his skills. Based on Obi-Wan' description, when Luke arrives on Dagobah we expect him to meet this powerful, wise old Jedi, but instead he is greeted by the small cane wielding hermit we all now know and love. Yoda acts a bit crazy to begin with, but all those years spent on the secluded fog filled planet are likely to have an effect on the best of us. The iconic character design was not always meant to be the case, though.

Many die hard fans will probably already know this fact already, but the franchise's more casual viewers may not. It turns out that the great and wise Jedi Master was actually supposed to be played by an adorable little monkey. Lucas' original idea was to have the monkey carry a cane and wear a mask. However, it would later prove to be much more trouble than what it was worth in the end.

This revelation first came to light when the 2010 book, The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back by J.W. Rinzler, was released, and it also contained pictures, which have been circulating the world of social media again lately. You can check them out below. The look was actually quite terrifying:

Despite decades of staying power, every so often, some new and obscure information regarding one of the world's biggest franchises does the rounds again, and this is just another example of "what could have been" had George Lucas not changed his mind. Having the monkey play the part of Luke's new teacher just wasn't feasible. One of the crew members, who also worked on the primate scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey, is quoted in the aforementioned book as saying:

"Look, the monkey's just going to pull the mask off over and over again. It's never going to work."

Thankfully, Lucas saw the light and, instead of going with the monkey, decided to bring in the great Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets), who made the character we know today. He then brought in Frank Oz to voice him.

When Lucas then decided to start working on his prequel trilogy, a puppet was used in The Phantom Menace. At the time of Return of the Jedi, Yoda is said to be 900 years old, so the new puppet was given a bit of an updated look. However, this would actually be the last time in the trilogy that we see Yoda in puppet form.

For Episodes II and III, the puppet was switched out for a completely CGI character. The same happened in later releases of The Phantom Menace, still voiced by Oz though. Many fans, and some of the cast, did not like the new CGI version, however. Considering Yoda would go on to take part in two of the best lightsaber battles on screen, a puppet would definitely have made it a little more difficult for them to pull off. The Last Jedi saw Yoda's return as a puppet.

With the upcoming show The Acolyte set to take place 50 years before the events of the Skywalker saga, it remains to be seen whether or not Yoda will make a cameo. If so, we'll need to wait and see if he will appear as CGI or if the producers will go back to using the good old fashioned puppet.

Whilst we are on the subject of Yoda's original character design, did you also know his name in the first draft of the script was Buffy? This was later changed to Minch Yoda, finally shortened to Yoda. It just goes to show, in spite of a lot of Lucas' changes causing fan upset, some of them definitely were for the best, wouldn't you agree?

This would not be the last time the use of a monkey would crop up in Star Wars, though, and it again was in The Empire Strikes Back. During the scene in which Vader consults with his master, the Emperor, via hologram, it wasn't always Ian McDiarmid's face. He would not be cast as the Emperor until Return of the Jedi. Instead, a monkey's eyes were used to make the image appear more alien.

What do you think of the idea of Yoda being a monkey? Did Lucas make the right call? Be sure to let us know.

Until next time!

Written By Jordan McGlinchey

Source(s): The Wrap

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