Movies - TV
How Frank Oz Really Felt About The Yoda Backlash Following The Last Jedi
By ANTHONY CRISLIP
The negative reaction to “Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi” came from many different sources, all emphasizing the movie's lack of fealty to the original trilogy.
Critics believed the film was disrespectful to the franchise, but Frank Oz, the puppeteer and voice actor who played Yoda, told Collider he “couldn’t understand the backlash.”
The film playfully remixes most of the tropes fans loved about the franchise's original trilogy, drawing plot elements, visual motifs, and character arcs from the classics.
Luke's characterization in the movie became a cornerstone of the backlash, particularly in its treatment of him as an "old cynic" who was miserable being stuck in the past.
Yoda’s final lesson for Luke is to accept his past failures and trust the new generation. This moral insulted a chunk of the fans that hated the movie.
It would have been reasonable to think that Yoda playing such a big part in that moment would be rewarding for fans, but it didn't keep the backlash from occurring.