From the moment the very first episode of The Mandalorian premiered with Disney+’s launch back in 2019, one thing was certain: audiences loved Grogu. Sure, at that point he didn’t actually have a name that people knew of and they simply referred to him consistently as ‘Baby Yoda,’ but it didn’t matter. This cute little creature of a puppet with big eyes and a funny waddle became an instant internet sensation and the kind of thing that Disney’s merchandising dreams are made of.
But that was seven years ago. Since then, a lot has changed in the world, but seemingly nothing has changed about Grogu himself. Sure, lots of things have happened around Grogu; he’s been kidnapped, given the choice to become a Jedi, returned to his adoptive Madalorian father, fought precursors of Praetorian Guards, etc. But nothing has happened to Grogu. Rather, nothing has changed Grogu in a meaningful way or made him into an actual character. Instead, he continues to be a cute, cuddly prop, both within and without the show and/or movie. So if The Mandalorian and Grogu is going to successfully capitalize on Grogu’s former popularity, as it seems so keen to do, it’s going to need to make a change: it’s going to have to turn Grogu into a real character.
In many ways, the biggest issue with Grogu is symptomatic of a much larger issue with The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and creator Jon Favreau’s brand of Star Wars storytelling as a whole: the overwhelming sense of stasis. Characters are not allowed to change or grow in any meaningful way, because then they would cease to be the specific version of the character that Favreau likes to play with. The filmmaker has compared his approach to Star Wars to a child playing with action figures several times over, and it does very much feel that way. These are characters trapped in their present-tense confines, who must retain all of these physical features and character traits, lest that action figure become outdated.
You can see this on full-display with Favreau’s approach to Grogu. Despite routinely engineered illusions of change, nothing seems to actually change Grogu within the show. He started the show as a little surrogate son Force user who would summon his powers during climactic beats to help get his adoptive father out of a jam, and in the trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, he’s just still that.
There are vague, nondescript, in-narrative excuses for this, but they all fall down even under the flimsiest of examinations. Sure, Grogu’s species lives to be hundreds of years old, but that doesn’t mean he necessarily has to be a baby incapable of speech for going on 60-plus years now. Having him be this little walking, meme-ing MacGuffin worked in the first season of The Mandalorian, but that story ended in a way that felt as if it was paving the way for him to meaningfully grow in the coming years. Instead, Favreau and co. have kept him exactly the same, clearly fearful that any actual evolution might jeopardize his marketability. I mean, the guy went off to Jedi train with AI Luke Skywalker, and came back as if literally nothing had changed in between seasons.
My hope is that The Mandalorian and Grogu at least makes strides to remedy this problem, and remembers that Grogu is a character, not a prop. There’s all kinds of stories left to tell with this character if Favreau will just embrace the fact that his growth isn’t something to be fearful of, but rather something that is full of meaningful potential.
The Mandalorian and Grogu premieres in theaters on May 22, 2026.