Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, has become an iconic face in the Star Wars fandom after his debut in season one of The Mandalorian. This 50-year-old foundling has become a centerpiece for almost every Mandalorian cosplay out there, as well as an adorable mascot for the series. While this fictional character has become beloved by many, he was apparently very close to not coming into existence thanks to a Star Wars producer.
Disney Plus recently released the first episode of its newest installment of Disney Gallery – Star Wars: The Mandalorian, where it discusses the production of the show’s third season. In this one-hour documentary, it is revealed that Dave Filoni was against the idea of Baby Yoda when it was pitched by Jon Favreau. Filoni thought that it was not a good idea to have a baby Yoda exist in the show after it was pitched to him, especially since it is George Lucas‘ favorite character in the franchise. Eventually, he agreed to the idea as long as they were able to do it right.
“You know, like in season one, Jon wants to make a Baby Yoda. I’m like, ‘What? Why? Why would we do this? That sounds like not a good idea.’ But, you put that initial fear aside and you say, ‘Okay, well, let’s really examine this.’ And I was like, ‘Jon, if you’re gonna do this, I’m gonna be there with you. ‘Cause I know Yoda’s one of George’s favorite characters and we cannot mess this up.'”
According to Filoni, the creation of Baby Yoda was a way for them to create something that the audience had not seen before. While he was hesitant to create this character, he placed his fate in Favreau as a professional filmmaker. And he was right to do so because Grogu ended up being a hit.
While we do know Grogu as a puppet, there were also plans to make this character CG. Filoni shared that Favreau worked on the live-action adaptations of The Lion King and The Jungle Book, and he thought that the same thing would happen to Grogu. Fortunately, German film director and The Mandalorian actor, Werner Herzog, told Filoni to “believe in the puppet.”
“I also knew Jon a bit as a filmmaker. And I know he’s got a great heart and a great sensibility for telling stories that are meaningful to people. And that maybe this little child could turn out to be something special. But we didn’t think it was gonna be a puppet the whole time. We thought it’d be CG.
“Jon’s coming off making Lion King and Jungle Book, where the CG is practically unparallelled with its believability. And here it is, we got Werner Herzog telling us, ‘No. Believe in the puppet.’ And well, the world did.”
It’s pretty weird to hear that there were different approaches when it came to Grogu’s conception. But it shows that different minds worked together to successfully bring this adorable character to life. And it shows, because Baby Yoda became an internet phenomenon. The producers of the show really did the character justice.
Season three of The Mandalorian gave a wholesome ending that Grogu and Din Djarin truly deserve, according to fans. Grogu officially became a Mandalorian apprentice, and as such, this brought back questions of whether Grogu would recieve a Mandalorian helmet and what it would look like.
If you want to see this documentary, episode one of season three’s Disney Gallery – Star Wars: The Mandalorian is now available to stream on Disney Plus.