10 Things You Didn't Know About Yoda
1. He Might Have Looked Way, Way Different
As iconic as Yoda is, it's difficult to imagine anyone other than the wizened green munchkin being Luke's swamp-dwelling mentor. However, Yoda's actual appearance went through several revisions before being committed to film, including a couple that are very strange.
Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, who developed many of Star Wars' most recognisable sights, made an initial stab at Yoda's design that looked more like a garden gnome than an alien wizard-monk. Another version, by Joe Johnson, was a peculiar blue frog creature. Eventually Yoda's signature green was settled on, with only the diminutive size and pointed ears surviving from McQuarrie's gnome.
Yoda wasn't always a puppet, either. Early tests, influenced by the primate scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey, involved putting a monkey in an adorable Yoda costume and training it to move on cue. When this proved unworkable George Lucas headed to Jim Henson's studio for a more sane alternative, and what resulted was the Yoda that cinemagoers came to love and admire.
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