George Lucas was concerned Baby Yoda wouldn’t get enough Jedi training

There have been plenty of hits and misses since Disney took over management of the Star Wars franchise, but I think we can all agree they knocked it out of the park with Grogu, aka Baby Yoda. The Child first appeared in the premiere episode of The Mandalorian and we haven’t been the same since. The relationship between Din Djarin and his adoptive kid has been one of the best things about any Star Wars project, before or after the acquisition.

Star Wars creator George Lucas wasn’t a fan of Disney’s sequel films, saying they “lacked originality” and that he felt “betrayed” by the direction Disney took with those movies. But when it came to The Mandalorian, Lucas was much more enthusiastic. Longtime Star Wars writer-director Dave Filoni worked with Lucas on The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series, and is one of the main creative forces behind current crop of Disney+ series. A while back, Filoni said that Lucas responded well to The Mandalorian. “He’s been very complimentary. I think he’s enjoyed the show, and he said once [that] now he gets to watch it as a fan and watch it as a viewer.”

And he got to visit the set, which yielded this image of Lucas with Baby Yoda. Peace, it seemed, had returned to the galaxy far, far away.

George Lucas worried training, Baby Yoda would lack

In the new book The Art of The Mandalorian: Season 2, Dave Filoni talked about another encounter he had with Lucas where they discussed everyone’s new favorite Star Wars character, and it’s pretty intriguing. “I had a talk with George, at one point, about the Child. His main concern was that the kid has to have a proper amount of training,” Filoni revealed, per Esquire. We can assume Filoni is referring to Grogu’s training in the ways of the Force. Grogu had displayed a natural affinity for it since he was introduced on the show, and The Book of Boba Fett revealed that the character was actually at the Jedi Temple during the execution of Order 66. But he hasn’t had much actual training, which is something Lucas always made a point to explore in his movies.

Since selling Star Wars to Disney, the relationship between the original creator and the studio has had its ups and downs, due in no small part to the fact that Disney basically threw out Lucas’ original concepts for a sequel trilogy. But apparently, the people behind the television shows listened. The first season of The Book of Boba Fett featured an entire episode that was pretty much dedicated to Grogu’s training under Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Even though there were some weird things about the episode, like the fact that Mark Hamill wasn’t involved at all or that it was a whole episode that relegated Boba Fett to a cameo in his own show, the training itself was pretty fun.

By the end of The Book of Boba Fett, however, we come to find that Grogu actually chose to go back to his Mandalorian adoptive father instead of continuing down the path of the Jedi. So whether he had enough training or not, he decided that he’d rather keep his attachments than forsake them for the way of the Force.

We’ll have to wait until season 3 of The Mandalorian to find out whether this turn will lead to Grogu being tempted by the Dark Side, or if he can stay on this other path without losing his way. Time will tell…although now that I think about it, the idea of a Darth Baby Yoda sounds like it’d be kind of nuts. Disney, call me.

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h/t Esquire, IndieWire