The Force has been strong with Star Wars Rebels since it premiered and already we’ve been privy to Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi hologram cameos. Next on the familiar faces docket is a Yoda Star Wars Rebels cameo, though you won’t actually see the little green guy interacting with any of the Rebels characters.
Star Wars Rebels officially returns from its winter hiatus on Monday, January 5 with the all-new episode, ‘Path of the Jedi.’ In this episode, Yoda will speak to Kanan and his Padawan apprentice, Ezra Bridger, through the Force. Though we’ll hear his unmistakable voice, Yoda will never actually be seen on screen.
Yoda wouldn’t be Yoda without the great Frank Oz providing the voice, so executive producer Dave Filoni made sure Oz was on board for this brief return of the Jedi Master. Oz has voiced Yoda in all the Star Wars feature films and carries forth the tradition into Star Wars Rebels, which is officially a part of the Star Wars cinematic canon.
“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,” Filoni spoke of Oz to TV Guide. “And I didn’t want anyone to think that he had left Dagobah. It was on the outer rim of what we do, but I think we were able to pull it off.”
While it would have been exciting to see Yoda appear in Star Wars Rebels as he did many times in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it didn’t make sense given Yoda’s current self-imposed banishment to Dagobah in order to hide from the Emperor and Darth Vader. “I felt personally to keep Yoda as this disembodied thing it would confuse the audience less,” Filoni added. “I didn’t want you to think Yoda could be teleporting from planet to planet.”
If you don’t want to wait until 2015 to watch Star Wars Rebels ‘Path of the Jedi’ on Disney XD, registered users of the Watch Disney XD app can stream the new episode starting on Monday, December 29.
