Disney+Ever since The Mandalorian dropped on Disney+, the world’s been in love with Baby Yoda – or more accurately, The Child.
The character was introduced at the end of the show’s first season, and from that moment on, he’s been circulating the Twittersphere in a never-ending cycle of gushing love.
However, we have to remember that he isn’t actually an infant Yoda, he’s just the same species as the Jedi Master. Don’t worry, Disney’s CEO has been calling him Baby Yoda too, much to the show’s creator’s displeasure.
Disney+The Star Wars series – taking place five years after Return of the Jedi – comes from the actor-director behind Iron Man, Chef and the remakes of The Jungle Book and The Lion King: Jon Favreau.
In a recent interview on The Star Wars Show, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger revealed that Favreau doesn’t take too kindly to people aboard production calling the character by his internet-given name.
Disney+Iger explained:
We don’t refer to The Child or The Asset the way the world is referring to The Child and The Asset, as Baby Yoda. That’s a no, no. In my early emails to Jon Favreau, I referenced in my emails, ‘Baby Yoda’. It just seemed easy, and I got my wrist slapped by Jon like a few times: ‘It’s not Baby Yoda!’
Due to the desire to keep Baby Yoda (suck it, Favreau) a secret, merchandise for the loveable character has been slow out the gate. Pre-orders only went live recently, and products won’t be available until the new year (that said, the Funko Pop! is already Amazon’s number one toy).
Commenting on the popularity of the character and lack of merchandise straight away, Iger told The Hollywood Reporter:
Well, look, the scale of the reaction is probably beyond my expectations by a wide margin. That said, the moment I laid eyes on the character, I had a strong feeling the character was going to connect with audiences. It’s just so cute, so interesting, so compelling, in many respects so familiar and yet so new.
We talked about it, and we wanted the reveal of that character – notice I’m not referring to it as ‘Baby Yoda’ – to be really special. And it was worth it.
However, Baby Yoda has had to share the limelight recently. Following the release of The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars fans became enamoured with a new character: Babu Frik.
Then again, that’s just another reminder of why we all love taking a trip to a galaxy far, far away.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.