Frank Oz was 'shocked' by Star Wars: The Last Jedi's plan to bring Yoda back

The most notable ending of "The Last Jedi" is the (perceived) burning of the Jedi's sacred texts. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), embittered by the galaxy's constant cycle of death, has retreated to a remote island, ready to let his order of psychic warrior monks fade into memory. When pleaded to re-enter the fray, he outwardly refuses, explaining that heroes are meaningless in a world where evil persists. Its only nostalgic gem is a small library of Jedi religious books. And these books will be set on fire. As he watches them burn, the ghost of Yoda (Frank Oz) appears beside him and calms him down. There's nothing wrong with letting such dated volumes burn, Yoda says. "Page tuners, they weren't," he admits.

Yoda's sudden appearance came as a surprise to Starwoids, an impact made even stronger by the fact that Yoda appeared via a handy puppet rather than a CGI effect. And no one, it seems, was more shocked than Oz. In a 2018 interview with Collider, Oz expressed how surprised he was to be asked to voice — and puppeteer — Yoda once again. There was, of course, a practical reason - Luke Skywalker never encountered CGI renditions of Yoda. Oz said:

"We had lunch and [Rian Johnson] asked me if I wanted to be Yoda there and I said sure. I thought it was CGI, so I was shocked when I said discovered that they really wanted to do the real Yoda, because it's a huge, massive undertaking. But that's what they did. It just started with Rian - and it made sense. You couldn't to have CGI Yoda with Mark, Luke, because Luke wouldn't know a CGI Yoda. The only Yoda Luke knew was a puppet character."