Posted in: Disney+, Preview, Star Wars, streaming, TV | Tagged: baby yoda, gizmo, Gremlins, Grogu, joe dante, mandalorian

The Mandalorian: Baby Yoda "Shamelessly" Copied from Gremlins' Gizmo?

Fans of Disney+ & Lucasfilm's The Mandalorian didn't leave May's Star Wars Celebration empty-handed, with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni confirming that the series will return in February 2023 (with Katee Sackhoff also returning) and that Bryce Dallas Howard is directing one of the episodes. With the return of Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin comes the return of Grogu aka Baby Yoda (though my mind always defaults to Rogu from American Dad) and that's going to make a whole lot of fans happy (as well as Disney's merchandising bottom line). But "Gremlins" franchise mastermind Joe Dante wants to make it clear that while "Baby Yoda" is beloved, he's not original. "I think the longevity of [the films] is really key to this one character [Gizmo], who is essentially like a baby," Dante explained during an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle (described as having a "wry smile"). "Which brings me, of course, to the subject of Baby Yoda, who is completely stolen and is just out-and-out copied. Shamelessly, I would think." It's understandable why Dante would be protective of Gizmo, what with the character serving as one of the focuses of HBO Max's upcoming animated prequel Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai (which Dante is serving on as a consultant).

Recently, Favreau spoke briefly with Cinemablend where we learned that he's already started writing the fourth season. In addition, as the "Mando" universe grows, Favreau discusses how he and Filoni are approaching crossovers.

"With television, we're very lucky that we don't have to rush things through into an hour-and-a-half, two hours. We get to tell stories slowly. So now, as Dave [Filoni]'s doing Ahsoka, it's very much informing the writing that I'm doing for [The Mandalorian] Season 4. It becomes- how should I put it? More precise," he explained, dropping in that big "Season 4" mention. And while that would seem to lend itself to any number of crossover possibilities, Favreau explained how they're looking to take their time in that regard and allow the storylines to play out. "When I was writing the first season of Mandalorian, I could do anything, set it anywhere. Dave [Filoni] would read it, we'd go back and forth, I would adjust. And there it was," Favreau said while explaining how the show has become its own self-contained "universe" with its own canon.

He continued, "Now we have to figure out why there are certain Mandalorians who wear helmets, certain ones who don't wear helmets, what's happening on Mandalore, what's Bo-Katan doing at the time? How does she feel about that? Where is the Darksaber? So it really creates very fertile ground for imagination, for storytelling." But with so many stories in play, the opportunities for familiar faces to meet up (or square off) will present themselves. "I think that inevitably, no matter how simple you start, the story threads start to connect and weave and overlap. And with Dave Filoni's deep understanding of everything around the time period, opportunities will always arise when we have story meetings and conversations about, 'Well, you know what character would be here now…' I mean, that's really how the Luke [Skywalker] thing happened," Favreau added.

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