Star Wars: ‘Updating Yoda for prequels was a MISTAKE’ says Empire’s special effects artist

The 900-year-old Jedi Master is one of the best-loved Star Wars characters. Yoda has featured in every Skywalker Saga episode to date, except for the original 1977 film, now known as A New Hope.

Most recently he was puppeteered by Frank Oz in The Last Jedi, having only been heard as a voice in The Force Awakens.

This was a harkening back to original trilogy movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

After all, he’s been CGI since the prequel films except for the original cut of The Phantom Menace when he returned as an updated puppet.

Now Nick Maley, the special effects make-up artist best known for his work on Yoda for The Empire Strikes Back, has recently spoken out on updated Phantom Menace puppet.

The 69-year-old Brit, promoting For the Love of Sci-Fi convention this weekend, said: “They built a puppet for Episode I: The Phantom Menace but made the mistake of trying to update Yoda.

“They re-sculptured him and made him out of a different material which was heavier.

“Then, because he was transparent instead of opaque, it meant light didn’t hit him the same way so his colour wasn’t the same.”

Maley added: “They also needed to put a stronger mechanism in so the result was a Yoda that looked quite different and generated a lot of criticism.

“Ultimately you can’t redesign grandma: grandma is grandma.

“She might be old-fashioned but that’s grandma.

“You need to save your new stuff for your new characters.”

Malek – a veteran of 54 movies including the Superman and Highlander sagas – worked with designer Stuart Freeborn and puppeteer Oz on the original rubber incarnation.

While a Yoda solo movie isn’t in the works, a new leak points to one focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi shooting in Northern Ireland.

The claim was made during Boris Johnson’s speech at the DUP conference this weekend.

Star Wars prequels actor Ewan McGregor has repeatedly asserted that he would return to the role if asked.