In the months leading up to the debut of Disney+ and The Mandalorian, merchandise based on the show could be found everywhere. Disney was putting a lot of stock into their newest Star Wars spinoff, and it unsurprisingly paid off when the show debuted to massive critical success.
While most of the merchandise features the eponymous Mandalorian himself, you could also find shirts featuring fellow bounty hunter IG-11 as well as ex-soldier/outcast Cara Dune, played by ex-MMA fight Gina Carano. One character who didn’t show up on merchandise – because his existence wasn’t revealed until the end of the first episode – is Baby Yoda, who has come to dominate all conversation surrounding the show, and whose popularity has skyrocketed so high he’s stumbled his way into Star Wars Battlefront II.
A modder by the name of Nanobuds has revealed that he’s working on a Baby Yoda model for the game with a to-be-determined release date. If the name Nanobuds seems familiar to anyone, it’s because he’s also the man responsible for three different (and awesome) Darth Vader skins: Battle Damaged Darth Vader, Fallen Order Vader, and Helmetless Darth Vader.
While the obvious assumption may be that Baby Yoda will be a skin for a playable character (like, I don’t know, Yoda), that might not be the case. We’ll have to wait and see just how the modder intends to incorporate the character into the game.
If you’re not watching The Mandalorian – you’re making a huge mistake, by the way – you might not know what all the fuss is about. Who is Baby Yoda? Well, first off, his name isn’t Baby Yoda. That’s the nickname the fan community has given the creature, mainly because the Star Wars universe has never given any details, including a name, of Yoda’s species.
Prior to now, there have only been two of them in the Star Wars canon. Yoda is obviously one of the most popular and well-known Star Wars characters, but there’s also (the absurdly named) Yaddle, a female member of the species who also sat on the Jedi Council and appeared in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.
So, “the child,” as the show calls him, has been given the sensible nickname of Baby Yoda. We know he’s fifty-years-old (Yoda was 800 when he died, the species ages very slowly, apparently) and that he has a powerful command of the force.
Oh, also he’s disgustingly adorable. That’s why he’s popular. Forget all the other stuff. It’s just all about the cuteness.