Star Wars: The Mandalorian Director Taika Waititi Casts Doubt on the Sex of Baby Yoda

For the past two months, Star Wars fans have wanted to know as much about “Baby Yoda” from Star Wars: The Mandalorian as they could, with series star and director Taika Waititi recently joking that even the character’s sex might not be what audiences have been led to believe. The character marks only the third member of its species that Star Wars fans have seen in live action, which includes the iconic Yoda and the lesser-known Yaddle. Even within the series, the character has only ever been referred to as “The Child,” with the upcoming season of the series potentially shedding more light on its history.

“I knew that people would be talking about Baby Yoda, but I also know Baby Yoda’s real name,” Waititi shared with Entertainment Weekly. “So if you’re gonna do me a favor, please stop calling him ‘Baby Yoda.’ Or is it a her! No one knows!”

The mystery around the character began in the series premiere, as the titular Mandalorian was hunting something he only knew as a bounty. The premiere concluded with the reveal of the character, who audiences quickly nicknamed “Baby Yoda,” though viewers didn’t even learn the character’s sex until the third episode when Werner Herzog’s character referred to it as a “him.” Throughout the rest of the season, Baby Yoda earned masculine pronouns.

This is only the latest instance of Waititi throwing fans off the trail, as he previously replied to a tweet asking users what they thought the character’s real name might be by claiming it was “Nigel.”

Waititi had also recently joked that, while he knows the character’s real name, he’s leaving it up to series creator Jon Favreau to reveal it.

“He’s not named Baby Yoda!” Taika asserted earlier this month. “I’ll wait for Favreau to give that away.”

While the series’ cast and crew might casually refer to him as Baby Yoda, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently confirmed that he was chided for referring to the character by the nickname.

“In this particular case, The Child, or The Asset — because 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,” Iger joked to The Star Wars Show. “I got chastised, in my early emails to Jon Favreau, I referenced in my emails, ‘Baby Yoda.’ It just seemed easy. And I got my wrists slapped by Jon a few times. ‘It’s not Baby Yoda!’ ‘Okay, okay!’”

Fans will likely learn more about the character when the second season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian debuts this fall.

Do you think we’ll learn Baby Yoda’s real name? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!