Lineage to Original Yoda

The main reason why Baby Yoda was developed as a physical puppet instead of CGI is because the producers of the show wanted to make use of as many tricks as possible from the original Star Wars movies (Couch, 2019). The original Yoda was a puppet made of plastic, foam and fabric. Frank Oz, the person who also played several Muppets, was puppeteering Yoda in the second and third Star Wars movies. In the later movies, he is completely computer-generated and therefore looks slightly different from his physical predecessor (Chartier, 2007). The Baby Yoda that can be seen in The Mandalorian is a puppet but takes three people to operate its movements, took three months to develop and cost around 5 million USD (Adekaiyero, 2023).  

Despite the original Yoda and Baby Yoda both being puppets and from the same species, there are several differences that can be noted. First of all their age. In The Mandalorian we learn that Baby Yoda, despite looking like a baby, is actually 50 years old. Signs of physical age are also visible on Baby Yoda such as wrinkles. In the original Star Wars trilogy, it is stated that Yoda is around 900 years old (Smith, 2017). Their species ages differently than humans and can therefore live longer. This is also why Baby Yoda does not speak (yet) but only coos like a baby whereas Yoda does speak in his iconic reverse order speech-pattern (Yuliyana & Barli, 2019). The age difference also becomes apparent in that, despite Yoda’s already small stature of 66 centimetres, Baby Yoda is around half that size (Yoda, n.d.). Furthermore, though both of them can use The Force, Yoda is far more proficient than Baby Yoda. Yoda is considered a ‘master’ since he has strong powers and taught many individuals on how to use The Force including Luke Skywalker, who ends up training Baby Yoda (Adekaiyero, 2023).

Baby Yoda's voice cooing:

Yoda's voice:

This gap in power and experience is what initially instigated the concept of Baby Yoda. Director John Favreau stated: “We knew Yoda, who was so old and was a master. What would it be like for a new character, another one of the species emerging and being in training, who was just beginning that journey?" (Adekaiyero, 2023). Note here that the species of Yoda is never mentioned. Part of the intrigue of Yoda and Baby Yoda is that it is never mentioned what species they are and where they come from (Adekaiyero, 2023). Moreover, there are only three characters of this species in the entire Star Wars franchise which are Yoda, Baby Yoda and Yaddle, a female equivalent of Yoda that has a minor role in one of the newer Star Wars movies (Yaddle, n.d.).