Star Wars fans have been enamored with Baby Yoda since the child’s debut in The Mandalorian. Ever since the surprising reveal at the end of the show’s first episode, Baby Yoda has quickly established itself within pop culture, with fans clamoring for toys and new memes popping up each week the show airs.
The Disney+ series went through great lengths to keep Baby Yoda's presence a secret, and director Bryce Dallas Howard recently explained the "agonizing" process of ensuring her kids kept Baby Yoda a secret.
“I’ve been walking around for the last year with a face like the cat that ate the canary,” Howard explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m so, so, so excited to be a part of this and the phenomenon that Baby has become. The thing I was most nervous about was that my kids had been on set quite a bit. So, they had seen Baby and interacted with Baby.”
“When we were filming, my kids were 6 and 11; they’re now 7 and 12. When the kids went back to school, every single day I would say, 'So, what are you not gonna talk about today?' And they would say, 'Baby!'" she continued. "I’d be like, 'That’s right!' I would just consistently remind them that there’s no circumstance that could ever arise where they’re allowed to talk about Baby. Now, for them, it’s very confusing because I’m like, 'Oh, now, you can talk about Baby,' and they’re like, 'Oh, okay.' We’ve been having this routine for about a year now, and it’s fun; it’s really, really fun. Everyone is super pissed that there’s no merch. Everyone is like, 'I want a Baby Yoda stuffed toy!' But, I think they made a good choice in not focusing there and just focusing on the storytelling.”
Howard, who also stars in the dinosaur franchise Jurassic World, isn’t the first of her family to helm a narrative set within the Star Wars universe. Her father, Ron Howard, also visited a galaxy far, far away when he directed 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Bryce shadowed her father on set ahead of her time in the director’s chair for The Mandalorian.
Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte. The first three episodes are streaming now on Disney+.