While Star Wars might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Bryce Dallas Howard, make no mistake, she has been an important player in a galaxy far, far away over the last few years. The actress known for her (underpaid) work in the Jurassic World trilogy, The Help and Rocketman has directed two episodes of The Mandalorian and one episode of The Book of Boba Fett so far, and we’ll see more of her helming work in The Mandalorian Season 3. On top of all that, now Howard has scored a voice role in the Star Wars franchise that will please Prequel Trilogy fans.
If you’re up for taking a break from watching the Star Wars movies in order, there’s a new animated project coming out tomorrow called Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. The anthology series, which will be accessible to Disney+ subscribers, focuses on different characters from the Prequel era, and Bryce Dallas Howard shared on Twitter that she lent her voice to the project as Yaddle, who was once a member of the Jedi Council.
Meet Yaddle in #TalesOfTheJedi — voiced by me *squeal* — streaming this Wednesday, October 26 only on @DisneyPlus. Thank you @dave_filoni for making this dream come true 💫 #StarWars @TheCloneWars pic.twitter.com/oYERidKuhVOctober 25, 2022
Yaddle may not look familiar to the casual Star Wars viewer, as she was a side character in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’s Jedi Council scenes. However, hardcore Star Wars fans know her quite well, particularly because she’s the first member of Yoda’s species to be shown in a Star Wars movie since the Jedi Master who trained Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker was introduced in The Empire Strikes Back. Yaddle didn’t have any lines in The Phantom Menace, so Bryce Dallas Howard has the privilege of finally giving this character her own voice.
By extension, because Grogu doesn’t speak in The Mandalorian aside from the nonsense word “Badu,” Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi will also be the first time we’ve heard a member of Yoda’s species deliver dialogue besides Yoda himself. I imagine Bryce Dallas Howard’s Yaddle has the same speech pattern as Yoda, but it would be funny to hear that Yaddle has speaks more normally, and that Yoda’s unusual word delivery is distinct only to him.
The first batch of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi episodes will focus on Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku, with the former being explored at various points in her life and the latter being spotlighted before he left the Jedi Order and fell to the dark side of the Force. Given that Yaddle is long-lived like Yoda and Grogu, she could easily appear in both Ahsoka and Dooku’s stories, but it hasn’t been clarified yet how she fits into Tales of the Jedi. This new animated Star Wars offering also features plenty of familiar Star Wars voice actors reprising their roles, including Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka, Corey Burton as Dooku, Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker and James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Liam Neeson and Ian McDiarmid also returned to respectively voice Qui-Gon Jinn and Palpatine, respectively.
All six Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi episodes premiere on Disney+ tomorrow, October 26, with each episode being approximately 15 minutes long. Once you’re done watching them, look through our guide covering the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
