Redemption was the main thing on Rob Coleman’s mind when he returned to supervise “Attack of the Clones.” Admittedly, the fan reception from “The Phantom Menace” had left him “stinging”: “I was the guy who helped bring Jar Jar to the screen, and there was all the blowback from that,” he told StarWars.com in 2022. Coming into the second film in the trilogy, Coleman admitted to feeling a bit terrified. “I didn’t want to be known as the guy who wrecked Yoda.”
Coleman spent long hours discussing the new Yoda with Lucas. In the early days of development, the writer-director wanted to retain as much puppetry as possible. Frank Oz was set to return for “Attack of the Clones,” and perform as Yoda in the majority of his scenes. Coleman would have only had to animate the duel between Yoda and Dooku — but Coleman pushed back against the idea:
“I felt that it would be really, really difficult because we would have to match what they did with the puppet and interpret how that puppet movement would be put into a digital character running around … George did say early on in briefing us that we’d see him full-body, he’d have to run and jump and fight. So I did know that, but I thought after learning what we learned on Watto, Jar Jar, and Sebulba [in ‘The Phantom Menace’], I felt we could take on Yoda.”