George Lucas On Why Yoda Spoke Backwards In ‘Empire Strikes Back’: “To Get People To Actually Listen”

There are many questions that Star Wars fans have about the George Lucas produced and co-written 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back which kicked off the 16th TCM Class Film Festival last night at the TCL Chinese Theatre with 45th anniversary showing.

For example, why didn’t we ever get to see that dinner that Han Solo, Princess Leia, Lando and Chewbacca have with Darth Vader? Where did Lucas get the freaky idea of carbon freezing Han Solo from? Why are the Rebels on Hoth to begin with and why are they riding Tauntaun creatures which are susceptible to freezing?

However, Lucas in his pre-Q&A before the film only addressed one about the $30.5M production which has minted a lifetime gross of $550M: Why does Yoda talk backwards? TCM host Ben Mankiewicz tried to ask other Empire Strikes Back questions over 30 minutes, however, Lucas yearned to regale the crowd with his beginnings with Francis Ford Coppola (who he’s co-bestowing the AFI Lifetime Achievement award to with Steven Spielberg), beating the studio odds with American Graffiti and connecting with Alan Ladd to get Star Wars off the ground. Many of these stories Lucas shared at Cannes last summer.

“If you speak regular English, people won’t listen that much,” Lucas said in reply to Mankiewicz’s question about Yoda speaking backwards. “But if he had an accent, or it’s really hard to understand what he’s saying, they focus on what he’s saying.”

“He was basically the philosopher of the movie,” Lucas added. “I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen – especially 12-year-olds.”

Mankiewicz further prodded Lucas: who of the new characters in Empire Strikes Back, did he like the most? Lando or Yoda. The 4x Oscar nominated filmmaker didn’t really want to answer:  “If you have 12 kids, which one do you like the most?”

It’s a big Star Wars weekend even though it’s May the 4th. Disney is re-releasing Lucas’ Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith this weekend in celebration of its 20th anniversary and the movie is expected to do another $20M at the box office, getting the 2005 Episode III to the $400M domestic mark.