The Mandalorian's Baby Yoda won't demystify little green Star Wars species
Executive producer Dave Filoni tells ET he understands how special the mystery around Yoda is.
In last week's premiere, the Disney Plus live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian gifted us with the cutest being in all the galaxy, and collective love for the child -- which fans have dubbed Baby Yoda -- has warmed hearts (and spawned wild theories) ever since. However, we shouldn't expect to learn all about Yoda's mysterious unnamed species.
Executive producer Dave Filoni, who worked with Star Wars creator George Lucas on CGI animated series The Clone Wars, told CNET sister site Entertainment Tonight he feels "a lot of responsibility" when dealing with Star Wars' unexplored elements.
"One of the reasons that I really got interested in this story that Jon was pitching was the subject of this child. Knowing George and how important the character of Yoda is to him, I wanted to make sure that I could help shepherd this idea," Filoni said.
"We still want to keep a lot of things a mystery, we don't want to go around answering things and making them less special, but let's tell a story that's interesting and compelling and add to this great galaxy."
We'd only seen two member of this species before the child in The Mandalorian arrived -- Yoda and Yaddle (who was a member of the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menace). Their home planet remains unknown, but they have long lifespans and the three we've encountered are Force-sensitive.
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See all photosFiloni and fellow executive producer Jon Favreau also noted that holding back on creating Baby Yoda merchandise ahead of the show's premiere was key in keeping the character a secret. So you won't be getting a Baby Yoda plush this holiday season, but expect to see a mountain of them in 2020.
Continue, the adventures of Baby Yoda do, in episode 3 of The Mandalorian, which hits Disney Plus on Friday.