Baby Yoda Puppet From Star Wars: The Mandalorian Cost a Ridiculous Amount of Money

Ever since Star Wars: The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+ last year, fans have been obsessed with the delightful and adorable character affectionately referred to as Baby Yoda. Lucasfilm made sure to keep the character’s presence under wraps, not allowing the debut to be spoiled by the likes of toys or t-shirts, and instead surprised fans the old fashioned way. The producers and show runner Jon Favreau invested a lot of resources to make Baby Yoda stand out in the Star Wars franchise, including spending a ton of money on the puppet that’s used for the character’s on-screen appearances.

Comedy actor Adam Pally, who portrayed one of the Scout Troopers who punched Baby Yoda in the Season 1 finale of The Mandalorian, recently revealed that the puppet for The Child cost A LOT of money to produce.

“I remember the first take that I did when I punched it…,” Pally said at the TCA Winter Press Tour event. “They called ‘cut’ and Jon, who was watching on a monitor in his office, came down and said, ‘I just want to let you know that this is the hero [expensive puppet] and it costs, like, $5 million. I want you to hit it, but I want you to know that.’”

Pally explained that this revelation made him so nervous, he missed in his punches on the puppet for the next three takes of filming.

This scene in The Mandalorian was noteworthy among fans because it was basically a skit on Saturday Night Live, as Pally and co-star Jason Sudeikis ranted about their murderous commanders and also failed to hit their targets while shooting blasters. The whole segment seemed to poke fun at the ridiculous lives of Stormtroopers in the Star Wars galaxy, recognizing their own futile existence.

But fans were surprised that Pally and Sudeikis actually played roles in the Star Wars show, and Pally revealed how it all came together.

“I’ve been friends with Favreau for a little bit, and he said he has this thing where he needed someone to ‘do something special.’ That was kind of the headline I got. So Jason and I talked and were like, ‘Yeah, we really want to be part of it.’ It seemed exciting,” Pally said at the TCAs.

Now that Disney+ is hard at work on Season 2 of the series, fans should expect a lot more surprises in the near future.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+.

Additional reporting from Scott Huver.