Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Force Awakens
In terms of cameos Star Wars: The Force Awakens is jam-packed with 'em. Tons of A-listers and previous franchise stars, such as Simon Pegg, Kevin Smith, Ewan McGregor and Daniel Craig, hid inside costumes or vocal booths for their brief scenes, and that list nearly included Frank Oz as the franchise's stalwart Jedi master. That's right; Yoda was so close to appearing onscreen in the movie.
Yoda's cameo was tipped to occur during that hallucinatory moment when Rey clutches Luke's old lightsaber, and hears the voices of Obi-Wan and Yoda. According to the film's editor, Maryann Brandon, the decision to include the Jedi master came down to the wire.
“There was one point where we were actually thinking of having Yoda in the film, and then we decided not to,” Brandon told Entertainment Tonight at the 66th annual ACE Eddie Awards. “Frank Oz came in for a day and did a whole bunch of Yoda and he was over the moon to do it — and we were tickled pink!” As it turns out, Oz did plenty of vocal work for the film but those newer samples were nixed in favor of using clips from earlier movies. It's probably for the best that Yoda's involvement was kept to a minimum - the film does contain a lot of nods to the earlier trilogy - but who knows about the future? Maybe he'll appear in Episode VIII.
Images: Disney