Jon Favreau Comes Up With a Theory Why People Are Obsessed With Baby Yoda

Baby Yoda: we all love him.

The green-skinned thing is the cutest little creature in the entire galaxy, with his short robe and big eyes and pointy ears. Ahem. The Mandalorian executive producer Jon Favreau thinks there is some other reason Baby Yoda has caught on, and it has to do with non-baby Yoda. While speaking to the Hollywood Reporter about his crazy year, Favreau talked out his Baby Yoda = theory.

“I think what’s great about what George [Lucas] created is that Yoda proper, the character that we grew up watching, was always shrouded in mystery, and that was what made him so archetypal and so mythic,” he said (I’m only referring to Yoda as “Yoda proper” from now on). “We know who he is based on his behavior and what he stands for, but we don’t know a lot of details about where he comes from or his species. I think that’s why people are so curious about this little one of the same species.”

We’re obsessed with Baby Yoda, according to Favreau, because we know nothing about Baby Yoda, and Yoda proper, and Yaddle, and their entire mysterious species. OK, that makes sense. But here’s my point of view: it’s because he’s soooo cute.