Frank Oz, the man behind Yoda, came back to the franchise with “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” in what was a secret cameo.
Interviewed by IGN, Oz spoke about the cameo and how it happened:
“Several years ago I had lunch with Rian [Johnson], and Rian asked if I could do Yoda in the next ‘Star Wars,’ and I said ‘Sure,’ because I thought it was just CGI. And then [Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy, who I’ve known for quite a while, who’s fantastic, she called me about it and then I realized that it wasn’t CGI, that it was actually the character,” Oz said.
I personally love puppet Yoda much better than CGI, both have their strengths, but Oz does admit it's much tougher to work with the puppet than the computer effects-driven version:
“I said, ‘Kathy, do you have any idea what’s going to happen here? This is tough!’ and she said ‘That’s okay, let’s do it.’ So, you know, the workshop made him and everything, and did a fantastic job,” Oz continued.
They also had to keep the cameo a total surprise, which meant Oz had to pretend he wasn't part of the movie on the Disney lot:
“I was told that that was going to be the surprise of the movie, so when I went to Pinewood I had to be a secret there. Although if people saw me… people DID see me, but if they questioned me it would have been fine because I shot ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ … there, and could have just said I had some meetings for movies. But the idea was to keep me off the credits. I was asked, ‘Could you have your name off the poster?’ and I said ‘Sure.’ So the idea was that that would be the surprise.”
As for a possible Yoda spinoff movie, he doesn't know anything about that but it sure as hell won't be a puppet movie:
“Believe me. That’s way too difficult for me. I rehearse a long time just to do one line of dialogue [as a puppeteer]. It would have to be [CGI], yeah. It would have to be. It’s far, far too difficult because I’m doing it with three other people. So it’s four people and you can’t just wing it. You’ve got to study every single word with four people.”