Star Wars: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Grogu
9. What Went Into His Creation
And speaking of crafting the eventual superstar of this small screen Star Wars adventure, it wasn't simply a case of smashing it out of the park from the get-go upon deciding to go down the route of a younger version of the race the iconic Jedi Master Yoda was a part of for young Grogu.
In fact, a ton of early concept art, based on a cocktail napkin doodle by Dave Filoni, depicted either a rather unsettling leathery version of The Child or a being that was a little too cute for its own good. Eventually Jon Favreau and Filoni started to hone in on what this entity needed to be, and it was a design courtesy of Chris Alzmann highlighting Grogu wrapped in "a piece of a flight jacket or something" that clicked for the pair.
As Favreau would put it when discussing Baby Yoda's origins on Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian:
“His eyes were a little weird and he looked a little out of it. We found it charming and that became the rallying image that we said 'this is good'.”
Primarily using the practical puppets - two were said to have been made for the show - when possible throughout the series, the animatronic Grogu even required up to five puppeteers to operate on set!