Early Draft of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Describes Yoda as Blue Instead of His Iconic Green

Yoda and Grogu are iconic Star Wars characters of the same species, recognizable by their green hue and pointed ears, as well as their force abilities. They are wise and grow to be very old and powerful, and while their race is sparse in the galaxy, they are truly recognizable. But their exact color apparently wasn’t always set in stone.

In a new report from The Guardian (via SFFGazette.com), we learned that in an early screenplay from The Empire Strikes Back scribes Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, Yoda is describes as follows:

"Mysteriously standing right in front of Luke is a strange, bluish creature, not more than two feet tall. The wizened little thing is dressed in rags." 

Early concept art also shows a Yoda who is portrayed in a blue hue, while a novelization released alongside the movie in 1980 also said he was "blue-skinned." The original comic book adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back also featured a blue, sometimes purplish Yoda. 

The Guardian went right to the source, and tracked down Nick Maley, a special makeup and creature effects designer who worked on the Star Wars series, and he revealed:

"By the time I got to work on him, he was green. I have a memory of a particular drawing. I seem to remember him being green in that drawing, and that would be before we’d ever started trying to try to make him.

“All sorts of crap goes on based on misunderstandings through the course of having a large organization of different people doing different things along the way."

It’s probably something as simple as the first makeup test looked greener once it went on, and they liked it. Or maybe it was too much blue with Yoda standing next to the Force Ghost version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who appeared alongside Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Who knows? Whatever the cause, the rest is history, and Yoda and Grogu are green forever.