When it comes to the best Star Wars characters, Baby Yoda is easily the cutest addition to a galaxy far, far away. Since Grogu’s introduction into the IP via the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, the world has been smitten with the little guy. However, it turns out that Baby Yoda has a dark past.
During the fifth episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, a Disney Plus TV series that breaks down the making of the hit sci-fi series, fans were greeted with some truly terrifying designs of what Baby Yoda was originally set to look like. In the early concept art, Grogu’s big eyes are gone, and instead, the beloved character looks like a shrivelled-up green potato.
The baby aspect is very much gone from the initial Grogu design. The figure looks aged, plump, and, let’s be honest, a bit like a reanimated shrunken corpse straight out of a horror movie.
So yeah, it turns out that the iconic and cute sensation that is Baby Yoda wasn’t made in a day, and it took a few nightmarish tries to perfect – a fact that The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau admitted himself.
“We got lots and lots of drawings,” Favreau explained (via Entertainment Weekly). “Some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, some of them were the wrong proportions.”
Luckily for all of us, the team did eventually find the Baby Yoda sweet spot when it came to his design. “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 explained.
“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.”
If you are keen to see the non-scream-inducing Baby Yoda on your small screens, here is everything we know about The Mandalorian season 3 release date. Or, if you want to venture further into Star Wars, here is our guide on everything we know about Andor season 2.