08-05-2025
QuickCheck: Was a monkey supposed to play Yoda in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back?
IT IS May, and "may the (force) be with you" - this was what many Star Wars fans have quoted to each other and their friends recently, especially on May 4.
The franchise introduced to the world great characters, and one of its favourite non-human characters is Jedi Master Yoda - who taught protagonist Luke Skywalker the ways of the light side. While being small in size, many are aware that he was portrayed on screen using puppetry and CGI.
However, did director George Lucas plan to use a monkey to play Yoda in one of the Star Wars movies?
VERDICT:
TRUE
Before the idea of puppetry (and later CGI) was planned for Yoda in several of the Star Wars movies, Lucas had originally planned for him to be played by a monkey.
This was documented in JW Rinzler's 2010 book "The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back", which includes a picture of the monkey, wearing a mask with his trainer
One of the main reasons Lucas decided against using the monkey was simply that the monkey was difficult to work with, even if it had a trainer.
Rinzler's book quoted a crewmember, saying 'Look, the monkey's just going to pull the mask off over and over again. It's never going to work.'
The other reason was that with the technology and camera effects at that time, it was difficult to create Yoda using a monkey wearing a mask. As the mask could not change shape, Yoda couldn't show any facial expressions or move his mouth for speech on screen.
Lucas then felt the combination of animatronics and puppetry would be better suited to being Yoda to life - he then got puppeteer Frank Oz (known for his work in the Muppets and Sesame Street) to provide both movements and voice to the character.
And history, the rest is - (as Yoda would say it). With his iconic look and speech pattern, Yoda is considered one of the most powerful characters in the franchise, as well as one of the Top 10 fan-favourite characters among fans (alongside Grogu and R2-D2).
If you can't get enough of Star Wars, check out what these local fans have been up to recently ( lifestyle/travel/2025/05/04/ star-wars-fans-lead-the-way- to-malaysia039s-hidden-gems).
Or check out these cool Star Wars collectibles to be added into your collection. ( lifestyle/living/2025/05/04/ the-toy-box-may-the-fourth-be- with-you-today)
Source:
- film/2013/nov/21/star-wars- yoda-monkey-lego-characters
- wars-yoda-monkey-original- design/
- favorite-star-wars-characters/ 17:
