Star Wars creator finally reveals why Yoda speaks backwards

Ever wondered why Yoda speaks backwards, even though he seems like the smartest dude in the room at any given time?

Well, the man behind Star Wars has finally revealed exactly why he sounds that way, and, uh… It’s certainly an explanation of sorts, I guess.

This weekend was the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival, which also happened to coincide with the 45th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.

To celebrate the film’s birthday, George Lucas himself turned up to answer some questions regarding the film (and anything Star Wars-related in general), which prompted someone in attendance to ask him something that’s been on all of our minds for years: Why does Yoda talk like that? (per Variety).

“Because if you speak regular English, people won’t listen that much,” Lucas revealed, “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… I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen — especially 12-year-olds.”

So, that answer does make sense… from a filmmaking perspective.

Star Wars has always been a relatively family friendly franchise (pushing the envelope at times, I guess), so of course you’d want kids to lock in and understand what the weird green puppet is waffling about.

However, from a lore perspective, am I the only one who thinks this makes absolutely zero sense?

We’ve seen other members of Yoda’s race talk before. Yaddle pops up a few times in the prequel trilogy, and she speaks perfectly coherent English.

So, this explanation regarding Yoda doesn’t really answer any questions for me. It seems to be specific to him, which frankly just raises more questions for me the longer I think about it.

Maybe Lucas will give us the proper answer in another five years during the 50th anniversary of the film…