Absence of Qui Gon "force ghost" explained?

From Liam Neeson's IMDb page:

On 11 July 2000 he fractured his right pelvis and chipped his left pelvis and sustained multiple abrasions to his legs after hitting a deer while riding his 1989 Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Connecticut. He was thrown off the motorcycle just before it smashed into a nearby tree. A passing motorist found him crawling along the roadside. Due to this accident he was unable to appear as a "Force Ghost" in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), and is only heard as a disembodied voice in the scene following Anakin's slaughter of the Tusken Raider Camp.

Has anyone brought this up on here before? Because I don't remember anyone here doing so.

No, not that I recall. I've never heard the story, anyway.

Me neither.

So maybe a force ghost was supposed to appear in the movie after all, and all these plot retcons have simply been a result of Liam Neeson's injury? :P

Qui Gon was actually as far as i know in the shooting script for Episode 3 where he teaches Yoda the concept of joining with the force, and talks about the Whills.  It is in the novelization. 

Lucas apparently discarded the scene because the information or scene was not important in the final cut of the film, Or they just will not say that Liam Neeson turned it down just like Sean Connery turned down Crystal Skull.

Supposedly working for Lucas is poisen for your career as an actor as you get either typecasted or remembered for being in a childish video game movie.

I heard Neeson wasn't in ROTS because he was busy filming Batman Begins.

When they are "filming" a movie for 2 1/2 years most of it on green screen scheduling conflicts or being busy isn't too much of an excuse. A lack of a desire to be involved is very valid.

And yes I did hear about Neeson's motorcycle accident when it occured (he could have died, it was quite serious) though from what I recall it didn't interfer with any currently in production projects of his.

Vaderisnothayden said:

Is it confirmed that the "Nooo!" in Qui Gon's scene in AOTC wasn't Neeson? Because it doesn't sound like his voice.

Doesn't sound like his voice at all. Is it meant to be Qui Gon's voice? I guess I always interpreted it as a Tusken Raider's gutteral cry whilst being sliced in half by Anakin...

A Tusken raider calling out Anakin's name??

Hmm, how odd would it be to find an injured man crawling along on the road, then realizing it is Liam freakin' Neeson.

"Liam Neeson? Muy muy I loove you!!! You were awesome as Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menance! That fight with Darth Maul, Briiiiiiilant stuff!!! You were so--"

"Just get me to a hospital!"

Since GL likes to recycle so many of his old ideas, maybe there could have been a scene of Force-ghost Qui-Gon getting attacked by a Force-ghost Wampa, thus explaining the injury.

C3PX said:

A Tusken raider calling out Anakin's name??

 

Hmm, how odd would it be to find an injured man crawling along on the road, then realizing it is Liam freakin' Neeson.

 

"Liam Neeson? Muy muy I loove you!!! You were awesome as Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menance! That fight with Darth Maul, Briiiiiiilant stuff!!! You were so--"

"Just get me to a hospital!"

No, I'm afraid you misunderstood me. I was saying that this is how I'd always interpreted the voices in Yoda's head:

Qui-Gon: "Anakin! Anakin!"

Dying tusken raider: Nooooo!

Vader: [breath]

Make sense?

Ah, thank you for explaining.

I always thought the intention with the garggled out "No" was that the vision was fading, or the connection with the netherworld was a bit weak due to peak times or something. Or that it was a really tormented and painfilled "no" as Qui-Gon is experiencing Anakin giving in to the darkside.

It was obvious the line was recycled, but I felt it was one of the better moments (or to be frank, one of the only decent moments) in the whole film.

Sluggo said:

I get what you are saying, but it is wrong.   Why would a sandperson know English?

I chalked that up to sloppiness on Lucas' part, actually.

I'm not trying to argue that it is a sandperson necessarily; I'm only saying that that was my initial assumption, which I've never really questioned until now. It doesn't sound a thing like Liam Neeson's voice. It does sound, to my ears, an awful lot like someone whose life is being snuffed out by a lightsaber. That the tusken would be speaking english (or basic, if you prefer) is inconsistent, to be sure, but that's true of the PT as a whole.

Maybe the voice was just Ben Burtt trying to fill in?

You mean like how Matthew Wood supposedly Voiced Jar Jar's "wessa free!" in Return of the jedi 2004 edition because they did not want to pay Ahmed to come back and voice him.

Well, I didn't know about that one, but yeah, exactly like that. :P