Star Wars: The Mandalorian Producer Reveals Why There Are No Baby Yoda Toys

We’re two episodes in to the first season of The Mandalorian, the first live-action show in the Star Wars universe. The series has already made some significant updates to the galaxy far far away, right down to the reveal of exactly who the titular character is bounty hunting — a baby version of Yoda’s species. The reveal, which was essentially kept secret until the first episode dropped, has dominated the Internet in recent days, with fans becoming gobsmacked about how adorable “Baby Yoda” is. But if you’re finding yourself upset that there isn’t Baby Yoda merchandise yet, there’s a good reason for that. In a recent interview with Collider, series creator Jon Favreau explained why merchandise surrounding the tiny character was (understandably) kept under wraps.

“I have to thank Disney and Lucasfilm, because the way the cat usually gets out of the bag with that stuff is merchandising and toy catalogs and things like that,” Favreau explained. “So they really back us up. We really wanted to have it be that you had to watch it yourself, so that every time you watch the show, there are new twists and secrets that come out. That requires a lot of restraint from the people who are footing the bill, saying they’re gonna hold back on certain things so that the public doesn’t know ahead of time. Part of that was holding back on some of the merchandise and holding back on some of the characters.”

So, while it might be a while until you can buy your own Baby Yoda plush toy or Funko Pop, it sounds like the wait will be worth it. And it sounds like the future merchandise will have a pretty adorable reference to go off of, considering the puppet that was used during production.

“It’s heartbreakingly beautiful,” Werner Herzog, who portrays The Client on the series, said in an interview earlier this month. “And I saw two technicians operating it remotely. One was for the eyes and the mouth, the other was for other facial expressions, it’s a phenomenal technical achievement, and beyond the technological achievement it’s heartbreaking.”

“I don’t know…but on the set it looked absolutely convincing,” Herzog continued. “It made you cry when you saw it.”

And while there’s no telling how Baby Yoda will factor into the remainder of the first season – especially after using its force powers to save The Mandalorian in the second episode – it sounds like there are still some surprises in store.

“He has his own name, and he is very interesting and very knowledgeable and very cute,” Carl Weathers, who plays Greef Carga, recently shared. “I never use that word, but he is a cute little guy… You have to see the shows to figure out who this baby Yoda really is, and what he is all about, or even if he is really a baby Yoda.”

New episodes of The Mandalorian will debut on Fridays exclusively on Disney+. If you haven’t checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.

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