Yoda's Force Ghost Would Make 'The Last Jedi' Perfect

The title of Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi — seems to be inspired directly by words spoken by Yoda on his deathbed. And for that reason, the return of Yoda’s spirit in the upcoming Star Wars film would be so perfect, it would almost feel like Jedi Jedi blasphemy if it didn’t happen.

The following speculates on what could happen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, meaning, if any of the following comes to pass, everything below of this could be considered a very intuitive spoiler.

Believing Yoda could appear in some way shape or form in The Last Jedi might sound like pure fanboy wish-fulfillment at first. But, on a thematic level, it actually makes just as much sense as the ghost of Anakin appearing. In fact, perhaps even more so.

In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, we learned Yoda had mastered the trick of keeping your spirit alive after death from the ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn. This process was explained in more detail in the The Clone Wars final season, in which Yoda’s ability to see into the future was briefly hyper-charged.

Episode III suggests Obi-Wan wouldn’t have had the ability to become a spirit without Yoda teaching him this technique, which turned out to be pretty handy since Obi-Wan did totally die before Yoda.

At the end of that film, this seemed to be true as the spirits of Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin appeared to Luke, grinning like crazy as the Ewoks and Rebels partied-down. So, if Yoda’s spirit would “always” be with Luke, just as Obi-Wan’s spirit chatted with Luke pretty much from the second after he died, why wouldn’t Yoda’s ghost still communicate with Luke, even thirty years later?

Furthermore, Yoda’s spirit has already appeared in the new trilogy. Both the voices of Yoda and Obi-Wan speak to Rey in The Force Awakens. Yoda’s exact dialogue during Rey’s big “Force-back” vision sequences is pretty much just lifted from one of his speeches to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back: “its energy, surrounds us, and binds us.” But, because Obi-Wan’s spirit speaks directly to Rey in this scene, it seems likely that both Yoda and Obi-Wan are chilling out in the afterlife together.

And then there’s the fact that back in March of this year, voice actor and legendary puppeteer Frank Oz gave a very cryptic answer when directly asked by Variety if he would return to voice the beloved character he first gave life to in 1980. “To be true to the people who asked me, and they are kind of my family, I have to say I’ve been asked not to talk about it,” he said. “I love Yoda. I would be happy to talk to you about it at the time they let me.” If this doesn’t sound like sly confirmation that Oz is involved in some kind of future Star Wars project, I don’t know what does.

Other than the fact that no one can seem to agree on how many Jedi are being referenced in the title of the upcoming film, the phrase itself seems to originate with Yoda. Just before he died, and gave Luke the crucial piece of information about there being “another Skywalker,” Yoda also said this: “When gone am I, the last of the Jedi you will be.”

So, here’s what we’ve got: A character who basically gave The Last Jedi its title, is voiced by an actor who isn’t denying being involved and has the luxury of being either manifest as a puppet or created in a computer, allowing him to look exactly the same as he last appeared in 1983. When you add all that up, if Yoda somehow isn’t in the movie, it seems nuts. Yoda is perhaps the most popular of all the non-human Star Wars characters meaning his return would not only be welcome but in most ways, an insane missed opportunity if it didn’t happen.

The Last Jedi hits theaters everywhere on December 15. While you’re waiting for the movie to arrive, visit Inverse every day to check out more entries in our Last Jedi Wishlist Series right here.

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