At this point, Baby Yoda is even more popular than the series that spawned him, but The Mandalorian actor Wener Herzog, who played the Client in the first season, thinks that the child is more “heartbreaking” than cute.
Just a couple of episodes in, Jon Favreau’s series received critical acclaim and rose to overwhelming popularity, and the story’s cliffhanger finale cemented fan participation until another season comes along. While we could attribute the executive producer’s unique take on the galaxy far, far away and the high production values as things that contributed to this massive success, Disney owes a huge amount of the positive feedback to Baby Yoda and his cuteness. The character became so viral so quickly that even non-Star Wars fans took a liking to him and shared his memes or pictures on the internet. Though apparently, the Child isn’t considered as adorable with everyone as we originally thought.
Now, we know what Baby Yoda means to you, but before you launch into a raging frenzy to eliminate all Baby Yoda naysayers, note that Herzog’s recent interview doesn’t actually diss the character. Rather, the actor has delicately pointed out that the advancements in robotics are more heartbreaking than people realize.
When asked to share his thoughts on the Child, Herzog stated that he wouldn’t use the term “cute,” saying:
“No, not cute. It was a phenomenal achievement of sculpting mechanically. When I saw this, it was so convincing, it was so unique. And then the producers talked about, Shouldn’t we have a fallback version with green screen and have it be completely digitally created? I said to them: It would be cowardly. You are the trailblazers. Show the world what you can do.”
Further explaining his rather controversial stance, the German filmmaker talked about the companion robots that his wife has told him about.
“Not cute. It’s heartbreaking. My wife has seen companion robots that are being created: a fluffy creature with big eyes talking to you, reading your facial expressions, putting its head to the side and asking you, “Oh, you don’t trust me?” There’s big stuff coming at us in terms of robotics.”
Herzog has a point; if that’s the future of the human race, even in context, it’s not only heartbreaking but also a little bit creepy. What do you think, though? Is The Mandalorian star right about his sentiments, or is he exaggerating Baby Yoda’s hold on our hearts? Sound off in the usual place below.