Jon Favreau Opens Up About Baby Yoda

The Mandalorian producer and creator Jon Favreau took some time out of his busy day filming episodes for Season 2 of the aforementioned series to discuss the show and one of its most popular creations – Baby Yoda.

In case you have lived under a rock for the last month, one of the biggest surprises in the new Mandalorian TV show now streaming on Disney+ is a tiny “child” viewers have dubbed Baby Yoda. Not only is he adorable enough to spawn his own series of memes and gifs, but he also serves as an example of puppetry and CGI done right.

“He’s mostly a puppet,” Favreau revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”

So far, the character has remained shrouded in mystery. He clearly hails from the same species as Yoda, and even possesses the same raw force power as the former Jedi master, but his specific origin, Favreau teased, has yet to be fully explained.

“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.”

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After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.

Pedro Pascal (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) stars as a lone Mandalorian gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Gina Carano (Deadpool), Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) and Nick Nolte (Affliction) also star.

Purchase Rogue One: A Star Wars Story here.

Jon Favreau serves as executive producer and showrunner for the series, Directors for the first season include Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels), who will be directing the first episode, plus Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), who also provides the voice for bounty hunter IG-88 in the series.

The Mandalorian is executive produced by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson. Karen Gilchrist will serve as co-executive producer. The series is currently streaming on Disney+