Jedi Master Yoda will be making an appearance in Star Wars Rebels when the series returns from its midseason break in January. There is a twist, however. Since Yoda is in exile at the time Rebels takes place, he can’t exactly be gallivanting around the galaxy. He’s a fugitive from the Empire, after all!

Due to his inability to travel, Yoda will be appearing to Kanan and his Padawan, Ezra, in the form of a disembodied voice – and that voice will be provided by none other than Frank Oz, the voice of Yoda in the Original Trilogy and the Prequels!

Executive producer Dave Filoni had this to say about the manner of Yoda’s appearance in Rebels:

“I felt personally to keep Yoda as this disembodied thing it would confuse the audience less,” says executive producer Dave Filoni, who also directed the installment. “I didn’t want you to think Yoda could be teleporting from planet to planet.”

“What’s great about Frank, by keeping the voice very present and active, you do feel that it’s a watchfulness and that he’s speaking to you from afar,” he says. “And I didn’t want anyone to think that he had left Dagobah [the planet where Yoda first trains Luke Skywalker]. It was on the outer rim of what we do, but I think we were able to pull it off.”

Since Rebels is now part of a larger continuity, Filoni said that fans can expect to see nods to other aspects of the Star Wars Saga, including The Empire Strikes Back and The Clone Wars.

“This is show is meant to fit in with everything that’s going on: Clone Wars, features, novels,” Filoni says. “We do a lot of work to make sure there’s continuity between these things now.”

Yoda (and Frank Oz) return to Star Wars in the episode “Path of the Jedi” which airs on January 5, 2015 on Disney XD at 9/8c. It will be available for WatchDisneyXD users on December 29.

Source: TV Guide

Powered by Sidelines