Rian Johnson "recreated" the Yoda puppet from the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy for ‘The Last Jedi’.
The 44-year-old filmmaker helmed the eighth movie in the sci-fi franchise and in a surprising scene, the little green Jedi Master makes an appearance and speaks with Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.
Yoda – who has featured in six of the eight movies so far – was created by ‘The Muppets’ creator Jim Henson for the original movies but in two of the prequels, the character was CGI but in his latest cameo, Johnson confirmed it was a puppet.
Speaking to Wired, Johnson said: "He was 100 per cent puppet. We actually recreated the puppet from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. They found original moulds, and Frank Oz came out and puppeteered him.
"It was exactly the way they would’ve done it when they shot ‘Empire’."
The character died during ‘Episode VI: Return of the Jedi’ but was seen as a Jedi-Force ghost alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker at the end of the film and now in ‘The Last Jedi’.
Yoda has also appeared in the animated TV spin-off series ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’.
Recently, John Boyega who stars as stormtrooper-turned-Resistance fighter Finn in the new trilogy revealed he wants to see a Yoda origin story.
Speaking to Collider, Boyega said: "I think they need to go back to the Old Republic, how they do in the games, and discover what’s going on there. There’s some cool stuff in the ‘Star Wars’ universe they can use, there’s cool fan theories they can use that could be part of the movies too, I mean, why not? Personally, I want to see a Yoda origin story."
Rian Johnson recreated Yoda puppet for Star Wars: The Last Jedi
