Find out what Baby Yoda almost looked like in new Mandalorian concept art

Baby Yoda
(Image credit: Lucasfilm)

History is defined by ‘what ifs.’ What if man didn’t land on the moon? What if Isaac Newton didn’t discover gravity? What if, in a galaxy far, far away, Baby Yoda ended up looking like a round splodge that vaguely resembled a weeks-old cabbage? As new Mandalorian concept art shows, the iconic Star Wars character, (canon name “The Child") could have looked very different – and possibly changed the course of the Disney Plus show forever.

“We got lots and lots of drawings. Some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, some of them were the wrong proportions." Mandalorian co-creator and showrunner Jon Favreau told EW.

He’s not wrong. The first early stab at nailing the design of the Baby Yoda was… certainly interesting. Take a look and try to ignore the Giant Baby Energy radiating from its every pore.

(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Next, there’s the slightly more cat-like take on Baby Yoda. It’s certainly unique, but worlds away from what would eventually be one of last year’s biggest, cutest talking points.

(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

The third one nears what would eventually become the finished version, though leans more towards the Steve Buscemi school of ‘How do you do fellow Padawans?’ instead of the mean, green, merchandise making machine that would become Baby Yoda.

(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Finally, they reached Baby Yoda – or something close to it. “There was one image that [artist] Chris Alzmann did that had him wrapped up in what looked like a piece of a flight jacket. His eyes were a little weird, and he looked a little out of it, there was something a little off with it,” Favreau recalled. “But we found it charming, and that became the rallying image that we said, 'This is good.' And it developed from there."

(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

The evolution of Baby Yoda proves just how much work goes into character design – from its inception, to experimenting, to landing on something and refining it – and that creating an icon takes time, patience, and a Death Star’s worth of scrapped ideas. What if, indeed.

 

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.