Know now do we why speaks that way does Yoda.
โStar Warsโ creator George Lucas is peeling back the curtain on why Yoda speaks backwards in the film franchise.
โYoda had a very distinctive way of talking, and it was done purposely because if you were speaking regular English, people donโt listen that much, but if he has an accent, or itโs really hard to understand what heโs saying, they focus on what heโs saying,โ he told Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz last week during a screening of โThe Empire Strikes Backโ at the TCM Classic Film Festival.
โHe was basically the philosopher of the movie, so he was talking about all of the things in long talking scenes and stuff where I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen, especially 12-year-olds.โ
Yoda is known for his wisdom, with such lines as โTry not. Do or do not. There is no try,โ โThe greatest teacher, failure isโ and โMuch to learn, you still have.โ
Yodaโs first appearance in the โStar Warsโ franchise came in 1980 in โThe Empire Strikes Back.โ The character was voiced by Frank Oz, who also provided it for โReturn of the Jedi,โ the prequel trilogy and โThe Last Jedi.โ He and other actors have also voiced Yoda in various related โStar Warsโ projects over the years.
Oz said he came up with Yodaโs unusual speaking style before getting Lucasโ blessing to do it.
โI was just looking at the original script of โThe Empire Strikes Backโ the other day and there was a bit of that odd syntax in it, but also it had Yoda speaking very colloquially,โ he told The Guardian in 2021. โSo I said to George (Lucas): โCan I do the whole thing like this?โ And he said: โSure!โ It just felt so right.โ
Oz also said he doesnโt get tired of people doing impressions of Yoda, either.
โNo Iโm used to it. But people donโt understand, anyone can do a voice. Itโs not the voice โ itโs the soul,โ he said.
A new โStar Warsโ film is due out in 2027. Earlier this month, the movie’s director, Shawn Levy, revealed that Ryan Gosling will star in it.
