Star Wars: The Mandalorian Actor Pedro Pascal Says He Always Knew Baby Yoda Would Be Huge With Fans

While Star Wars has been near and dear to fans’ hearts for years, the franchise got a whole new level of love last year with the arrival of Baby Yoda. The pint-sized character from The Mandalorian, the franchise’s first live-action series, swept fans off their feet from the second he appeared, and has birthed countless memes and online love in the time since. Given the secrecy surrounding the series in the lead-up to its debut, it was a bit of a surprise to the general public — but not necessarily to those working behind-the-scenes. In a recent interview with Yahoo Movies UK, series star Pedro Pascal spoke about first seeing concept art for “The Child”, and knowing that fans would probably love it.

“I did. I can’t bring myself to lie and be like ‘We had no idea of the sensation that he would be’,” Pascal explained. “We never talked about it being a sure thing, but I unconsciously kept to myself that the very first time I saw the image in the illustration during that first meeting, I was like ‘Oh my God, people are going to lose their mind over that’. So basically it was no surprise.”

Pascal also spoke about the technical prowess that went into bringing Baby Yoda to life, which he was particularly impressed with on set.

“It was incredible just to see how talented the departments are. It was just unbelievable, from the production design to the company, Legacy Effects, that created the doll and so many of the props and creatures,” Pascal continued. “There’s all the history they bring to it from the other films and from their experiences on other films. You’re among the best and so you just really have to make yourself a passenger to that. To see them care for the doll and also find different ways for it to express itself and become an incredible scene partner is incredibly fascinating. It’s a pretty adorable thing.”

The love for Baby Yoda – and particularly his technical design – appears to be universal among Pascal’s The Mandalorian costars, with Werner Herzog being vocal about his fascination with the character.

“No, not cute. It was a phenomenal achievement of sculpting mechanically. When I saw this, it was so convincing, it was so unique,” Herzog said in an interview last month. “And then the producers talked about, ‘Shouldn’t we have a fallback version with green screen and have it be completely digitally created?’ I said to them: It would be cowardly. You are the trailblazers. Show the world what you can do.”

Season 2 of The Mandalorian premieres exclusively on Disney+ this October.