The Mandalorian is a big hit for Disney+, but we've reached a point where it's almost in the shadow of its star character. The hype for The Child (known by many as Baby Yoda) is real, and despite speculation that enthusiasm for the character would die down not long after Season 1, people are still wigging out over merchandise and wanting more.
It comes at a time where fan response to the latest Star Wars latest trilogy was lukewarm, and the fanbase is divided on how to feel about it as a whole. The Sequel Trilogy was still financially successful, but I'm sure Disney would prefer to have its next Star Wars trilogy be something more universally acclaimed. Could the answer be staring them in the face with The Child? Would Disney actually make this character the star of a future movie?
Disney Has Reportedly Expressed Interest In A Yoda Movie In The Past
While Disney has yet to let a non-humanoid character be the star of a Star Wars movie, there has been reported interest in eventually doing so. Word first surfaced in 2017 via THR that Disney was eyeing movies for Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda to hit the silver screen. Since then, the Boba Fett project was cancelled, the Kenobi movie has transitioned into a Disney+ series, and there has been no recent word on a Yoda movie. The point being that if two of those projects were legit, chances are the third one is in some way as well.
If this Yoda project is still in development, then there's a chance The Child could be well on its way to becoming a movie star for Star Wars. With The Child being 50 years old during The Mandalorian Season 1, there is crossover time in which the both of them were alive, which may explain The Child's origins. I'm not saying a Yoda movie would ever cover that, but I am saying there's a possibility for it to happen.
Furthermore, if Disney was at one point interested in a Yoda movie, then I can't help but think they are interested in a movie that puts The Child or some future iteration of the character front and center. This is something that could happen and actually move the Star Wars franchise forward in a major way.
How Star Wars Could Benefit From The Child Starring In A Movie
Besides the fact that The Child is the "new hotness" amongst the fandom at large and a cash cow for Disney merchandise, there's another benefit to having it star in a movie. The long lifespan of The Child and its species means that, should it survive to adulthood, he can serve as a tether to Star Wars' past while still taking it into the deep future.
Star Wars is done with the Skywalker Saga, which means it will head somewhere else in the future. Popular speculation has been that the franchise will touch on the High Republic era, and it's also possible Disney will attempt to tell the future story of this galaxy far far away in the actual future. It'd be quite a risk to take the story far beyond the story of the Empire or First Order, but one that could be mitigated by keeping the familiar Child front and center.
That's not to say it wouldn't still be a risk to take viewers far beyond the familiar stories of Star Wars, but this sounds like a safer option than a large-scale reboot. People love The Child, and Star Wars definitely needs to do something radically removed from the Sequel Trilogy era, regardless of its fanbase. Take something all the fans love and use it to craft an entirely new story that may unify this divided fandom once more.
The Child Could Fix The Problems That Would Make A Yoda Movie Annoying
I love Yoda, and he's without a doubt one of my top 3 Star Wars characters of all time. That said, a movie about him would be a terrible idea due to his way of speaking. It would be akin to doing an entire movie centered around Wookiees done entirely with subtitles, although maybe more frustrating because Yoda's dialogue would just be nonstop backwards speech.
I'm not joking when I say there's not a day that passes that I hope Yoda's way of speaking does not pass on to The Child. Ideally, I'm hoping The Child remains around humans or any other species capable of Galactic Basic so that if that movie starring him one day comes out, we don't have to deal with this speech pattern. This kid's using the Force at a very high level in its baby stages, so surely learning languages isn't a blind spot for this species.
Another problem with an Yoda movie is that while we've seen the character a lot, we still don't know a ton about him. A character of his immense age has to have an expansive past, and quite frankly, a movie isn't going to be able to effectively chronicle all that. The same is true of The Child, but with The Mandalorian showing a key part of his origins, I think the parts skipped over would be less significant when he comes of age compared to that of Yoda.
What Disney Has Said In Regards To A Movie With Baby Yoda
While there have been no specific discussions from Disney that involve a Baby Yoda movie, former CEO Bob Iger did say that content in the Disney+ Star Wars shows could be multiplatform. With that said, he mentioned that wasn't an announcement of any kind, and now that he's officially out as CEO of Disney, obviously he's not the strongest source of information for Disney's strategies going forward.
As previously mentioned, Lucasfilm has announced The High Republic, which is a publishing initiative that will take the story of Star Wars two hundred years before the start of the prequel movies. There we could actually see a "Baby Yoda," literally, but not The Child we've grown to love in The Mandalorian. For now, the current word looks as though Star Wars wants to look to the past rather than the future.
With Bob Chapek taking over for Disney, I suspect he understands the importance of The Child and the money-making potential quite well. Chapek's promotion comes from his former overseeing of the brand's toys and theme park divisions, so he's familiar with the Baby Yoda merch hype. That's about the best anyone hoping for a future movie starring The Child can hope for at this time, and hopefully Chapek will share his thoughts on the character's future in the franchise at some point.
Obviously I believe there's a real possibility Disney will try to make The Child Star Wars' next big movie star, but what's your opinion? Share all thoughts in the comments, and continue to stick with CinemaBlend for all the latest news happening in the world of television and movies.
