Baby Yoda — as we know him now — is undeniably adorable. But it wasn't an easy road to adoration for the little guy, as evidenced by early character designs that have now been revealed by the creators of The Mandalorian.
As seen in Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, the early concept art for the Child — a.k.a. Baby Yoda — is actually pretty creepy. The fan-favourite character used to look quite a bit different than the cute green baby we know and love. In fact, series showrunner Jon Favreau himself has admitted that some preliminary designs were "too ugly" for the show.
"We got lots and lots of drawings," Favreau explained in the docuseries, "Some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, some of them were the wrong proportions."
At least five early iterations were rejected before the design team came up with something more closely resembling the Child as we know it today.
"Finally there was one image that Chris Alzmann did that had him wrapped up in what looked like a piece of a flight jacket," Favreau said. "His eyes were a little weird, and he looked a little out of it, there was something a little off with it. But we found it charming, and that became the rallying image that we said, 'This is good.' And it developed from there."
That final concept by Alzmann led the design team toward the character now seen in The Mandalorian, which has been immortalized on countless pieces of Disney merchandise ranging from face masks to vinyl records.
As previously reported, the series is scheduled to return to Disney+ for Season 2 this fall. Additionally, The Mandalorian has already been renewed for Season 3. So get ready for even more Baby Yoda content in the coming months.
See some of the character's early designs below.
As seen in Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, the early concept art for the Child — a.k.a. Baby Yoda — is actually pretty creepy. The fan-favourite character used to look quite a bit different than the cute green baby we know and love. In fact, series showrunner Jon Favreau himself has admitted that some preliminary designs were "too ugly" for the show.
"We got lots and lots of drawings," Favreau explained in the docuseries, "Some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, some of them were the wrong proportions."
At least five early iterations were rejected before the design team came up with something more closely resembling the Child as we know it today.
"Finally there was one image that Chris Alzmann did that had him wrapped up in what looked like a piece of a flight jacket," Favreau said. "His eyes were a little weird, and he looked a little out of it, there was something a little off with it. But we found it charming, and that became the rallying image that we said, 'This is good.' And it developed from there."
That final concept by Alzmann led the design team toward the character now seen in The Mandalorian, which has been immortalized on countless pieces of Disney merchandise ranging from face masks to vinyl records.
As previously reported, the series is scheduled to return to Disney+ for Season 2 this fall. Additionally, The Mandalorian has already been renewed for Season 3. So get ready for even more Baby Yoda content in the coming months.
See some of the character's early designs below.