Almost as soon as The Mandalorian premiered back in November, the world went crazy for Baby Yoda. The pint-sized puppet launched a thousand gifs, spawned endless memes and waddled his way into our collective hearts. Now that the first season has wrapped up and a second season is underway, fans are eager to find out more about this adorable yet deadly little Force-wielder.
One thing that’s caused a lot of debate is the character’s true name. Despite being known to the world in general as ‘Baby Yoda,’ he’s obviously not actually Yoda as a baby. In fact, the show’s production team don’t particularly like people referring to him by that name (despite even Disney CEO Bob Iger doing it). Within the context of the series, he’s The Child, but he does have an official name.
Creator Jon Favreau and director Taika Waititi claim to be the only ones who know the truth and now, Waititi has spilled the beans. Kinda. Responding to a Twitter post asking for best guesses as to Baby Yoda’s real name, he said the following:
“I think it’s Nigel.”
Of course, Baby Yoda’s real name is not going to be Nigel, but fans immediately seized upon it as the best option yet. And while Nigel is a very un-Star Wars-y name, a quick shuffle through Wookiepedia reveals that there are indeed Nigels in a galaxy far, far away. Apparently, Nigel Nivers was an Imperial Warlord battling for power in the wake of the Battle of Endor, subjugating a planet in the outer rim. That actually sounds like a weirdly fitting description of Werner Herzog’s character in The Mandalorian, who’s only known as The Client. So, while Waititi was joking, The Client could actually be a Nigel.
In any case, we presume season 2 of The Mandalorian will reveal who was looking after Nigel for the 50 years preceding the show, which may well reveal a bit more about this cute little guy’s past, too. So with any luck, we’ll finally get his real name when the series returns for its next run.
