Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni Talk About What They Had to Consider When Naming Grogu For THE MANDALORIAN
The Mandalorian has been one of the most popular and exciting series on the Disney+ streaming service. It’s also one of the best Star Wars projects to have come around in a while. One of the coolest parts of the series is that in both Season 1 and Season 2, the creators were able to keep a major secret from the viewers, and they were both awesome and exciting when they were revealed.
Season 2 was the return of Luke Skywalker who came in to save the day and take Grogu to train him. And Season 1 was the introduction of Grogu himself, first referred to by fans as “Baby Yoda.”
These were both difficult to pull off, but especially the first surprise, not letting fans see the little one until the show began. Most series would have let fans get pumped up and excited about this adorable and highly marketable character, but the series creators really wanted him to be a surprise, and it was a really fun one. But when everyone saw the series premiere, right before the holidays in 2019, there weren’t any Baby Yodas on the shelf for Christmas, and that was a major snafu.
Alas, it has worked itself out, and Grogu is marketed now as he should be, for all fans and kids to enjoy, but it was a difficult road to get where we are. In a recent interview with StarWars.com (via CB), The Mandalorian's showrunners, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, opened up about the struggles that came with naming the character.
Filoni explained:
"It was good to have Ahsoka there cause she's a good balancing point ... Mando at first reacted like the audience. 'Grogu? That's strange.' But when he says it, Grogu looks at him. And I always related that to when I have a dog and the dog starts to learn its name. You say its name, it looks at you, it's the most heartwarming thing. And so when you see that he recognizes his name and that until Ahsoka says his name, that he probably hasn't heard it in a long time – it's like, how could you reject that?"
Favreau added:
"That's the thing with Grogu. He's like part-dog, part-human, part-reptile. He's a big mixture of everything... And also as he gets older, he won't outgrow the name. It's not a cute little name and then, you know, he's as old as Yoda and he still has a weird, cute name. 'Sparky.' You know, you don't want to be 'Sparky' and be like 600 years old. It was also hard because no matter what we named him, it wasn't going to be – it couldn't be – Baby Yoda."
Favreau also talked about revealing "The Child" in the first episode and creating the character's look.
"You have a responsibility for Star Wars, to George [Lucas] and to Kathy [Kennedy] and to the people who brought me in. And the audience. They're invested in these characters. And you have young people who are growing up with the characters and what they represent. You feel very protective of that, and trying to hold as high of a standard as you can. I think those moments – the Baby Yoda reveal was very organic to the story. And just the idea of surprising to make it a bit of a left turn to people's expectations that this was going to be a guy runnin' and gunnin' through the galaxy. That was a nice twist. And I'm really happy that [everyone] supported us keeping that a secret. We put the audience experience first there."
He continued:
"He's cute, but he's a little ugly. He's ugly-cute ... He's adorable because he's not perfect. He's got the cheeks, but he's got like weird little pointy teeth and he's got weird peach fuzz. In our design, when he looked too cute, he didn't look right. We found that right balance."
They’ve done a great job endearing Grogu to the masses. He is a beloved piece of Star Wars history and pop culture, and we can’t wait to see how his story plays out.
Seasons 1 and 2 of The Mandalorian are available on Disney+, and season 3 is currently airing.
