Star Wars Making A Potentially Disastrous Change To Grogu?
Star Wars producer Dave Filoni says there are active conversations about whether Grogu will talk or not.
Star Wars producer Dave Filoni says that conversations are actively happening about whether or not Grogu, the adorable breakout character of The Mandalorian, should start talking. At the recent television conference PaleyFest LA, the Insider asked Filoni whether or not the tiny alien known colloquially as “Baby Yoda” would eventually speak in the show, to which he replied “I leave all that stuff to Jon [Favreau], really. I’m very protective of the character as far as being Jon’s brainchild, literally.” That seems to leave it up in the air for the moment, but there is a real possibility we could be hearing Grogu’s first words soon.
Filoni also noted that within Star Wars continuity, Grogu is currently about 50 years old, which would seem to be a verbal age for most. On the other hand, Lucasfilm has never actually stated exactly what species Grogu and Yoda belong to, and by extension, what the life cycle of their tiny bodies might be. It is known at Yoda was approximately 900 years old at the time of his death in Return of the Jedi, so Grogu may still legitimately be thought of as a pre-verbal infant.
On the other hand, Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) was able to mentally speak to Grogu in some Force-aided fashion and apparently, the child is able to articulate himself in that fashion, so why would he not be able to physically speak? Filoni also explained that the people behind The Mandalorian “really like him how he is” and that changing one of the fundamental aspects of the character would be a pretty big deal.
Given that Dave Filoni is the guy to defend Grogu against charges of being a good character because he is essentially ugly, it makes sense that he would be protective of Star Wars’ cutest character this side of an Ewok (or whatever the furry woodland species actually calls itself). It is also undeniable that giving Baby Yoda the ability to speak would change the character and his dynamics with the other characters, including his father figure Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal).
It would certainly be interesting seeing Grogu talk back to his Mandalorian foster father, especially if he enters into some kind of Star Wars equivalent of the Terrible Twos. It could also be a fascinating development for Grogu to develop the ability to speak, given that he is one of the few people in the Galaxy with direct personal memories of the fall of the Jedi Order and likely had interactions in the past with iconic characters like Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
If Star Wars does see fit to give Grogu the ability to speak, that just raises the question of what his first words will be. That’ll be a touching episode.
