He went on to explain that since Yoda is a philosopher for Luke, the way he spoke had to feel significant. “If you speak regular English, people won’t listen that much,” he continued. “But if he had an accent, or it’s really hard to understand what he’s saying, they focus on what he’s saying.”

Lucas fielded this query at the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival, where Empire was getting an anniversary screening. His answer, basically, is that audiences, and especially children, are too dumb to understand Yoda’s deep wisdom if you just say it normal-style.