Even if you haven’t been watching The Mandalorian, chances are that you’re aware of Baby Yoda. Ever since appearing at the end of the Disney Plus show’s first episode, the little green guy has taken the internet by storm, to the point where he’s now overshadowed Pedro Pascal’s title character as the Star Wars fandom’s newest hero.
It probably came as a surprise to even The Mandalorian‘s creative team how quickly the Baby Yoda phenomenon took off, with both memes and merchandise getting released on a seemingly daily basis, as well as the cast and crew of J.J. Abrams’ upcoming The Rise of Skywalker having to field questions about their opinions on the 50 year-old infant alien.
In a recent interview to promote the show, producer Jon Favreau went into detail about how Baby Yoda was created, admitting that the character is brought to life predominantly through practical effects, along with some more subtle CGI.
“He’s mostly a puppet. When it’s CG, we try to make him obey the same physical laws that he would if he were a puppet. I think a lot of times CG makes itself too obvious where you don’t create parameters creatively, that allow the character to keep the same identity and charm.”
Despite Baby Yoda launching an online craze, not a lot of information is actually known about where it comes from, or how heavily the critter will factor into The Mandalorian‘s overall narrative. Luckily, Favreau also confirmed that the remaining episodes of the first season will go some way to filling in the gaps, while also keeping as coy as you would expect from someone so heavily involved in the typically-secretive Star Wars franchise.
“We’ll learn more about him over the course of the season. I think what’s great about what George Lucas created is that Yoda proper, the character that we grew up watching, was always shrouded in mystery, and that was what made him so archetypal and so mythic. We know who he is based on his behavior and what he stands for, but we don’t know a lot of details about where he comes from or his species. I think that’s why people are so curious about this little one of the same species.”
While Favreau didn’t exactly go into great details about the origins of Baby Yoda, it certainly sounds like the character could end up markedly different from the wizened old Yoda that starred in the big screen franchise. Just enjoy him while you can, because with something this marketable and merchandise-friendly, there’s every chance that Disney will run this whole Baby Yoda craze into the ground pretty quickly.
