Jon Favreau’s highly anticipated Disney+ ‘Star Wars’ series features a mysterious infant fans have dubbed ‘Baby Yoda,’ and it’s the cutest thing since Ewoks.
The levels of cuteness are strong with this one. Tighten your robes and grab your light saber because you are not ready for this new Star Wars character. We will spare as many spoilers of the new Disney+ show The Mandalorian as we can, but in the first episode, Mr. Mandalorian himself, Din Jarron, is tasked with tracking down a 50-year old target, which is none other than… [SPOILER ALERT] Baby Yoda, or rather, a nameless child of Yoda’s species.
When your lifespan is 900 years, 50 years old is practically fetal. Despite the virtual sets and heavy CGI in many other areas of the show, we are pleased to see that the infant is an animatronic puppet, hailing back to the original three Star Wars films. By The Mandalorian episode two, Baby Yoda is using the force: the only thing cuter than a little green baby with huge ears is one that can Force-lift monsters into the air.
Yoda was originally intended to be a mysterious and magical character akin to Lord of the Rings’ Tom Bombadil, with no known origin, species, or home planet. Now, it seems we may finally be getting a glimpse of the Yoda-verse. This could prove troubling, as revealing too much about Yoda’s species may take away some of the wonder and enigma that he exudes. We do know that the Baby was born 10 years before Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, while the show takes place after the events of Return of the Jedi when Yoda is already dead. The child could be related to Yoda himself or even Yaddle, a female Jedi of the species, but many fan theories favor it being a clone: he/she has a symbol on their sleeve that points to Kaminoan cloners. Whatever its origin, you best believe we’ll be tuning in as each episode airs just to gaze into those big black eyes.
The Mandalorian is directed and executive produced by Jon Favreau (Lion King, Avengers: Endgame) under the Lucasfilm Fairview Entertainment banner. Episodes one and two are streaming now on Disney+.
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