While millions of Star Wars fans might want to get their hands on Baby Yoda to hug the adorable critter and never let go, Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon, the main villain of The Mandalorian, wants to get his hands on The Child for a much more sinister reason. But though he was on Mando’s tail throughout the first season, we still don’t know exactly why the former Imperial officer is so keen to apprehend the Force-sensitive sprog.
This new fan theory, though, may be onto something. Redditer u/alma95 has suggested that Gideon’s ultimate aim is to extract the midi-chlorians from Baby Yoda and inject them into his veins, thereby stealing The Child’s Force-sensitivity and giving it to himself. The theorist also points out he could be working for the Emperor, too, and planning to send cloned samples of The Child’s midi-chlorians back to Exegol to help Palpatine with his rejuvenation.
The big piece of evidence for this theory comes from Chapter 3 of season 1. When Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin initially left Baby Yoda with Werner Herzog’s unnamed Client, he overheard him telling Dr. Pershing to “extract the necessary material and be done with it.” Pershing points out that their boss, who we later discover is Gideon, wants The Asset alive. Thankfully, Mando has a change of heart and gets the little guy out of there before he can come to any harm.
Midi-chlorians – George Lucas’ controversial “scientific” explanation behind the Force, as revealed in the prequels – have yet to be referenced in the Disney era, so in a way it would be surprising if the concept was suddenly revived as a major plot point in The Mandalorian. But this fan theory certainly does hold water and gels with that intriguing quote from season 1.
