The Single Most Important Choice in 'The Mandalorian' is Grogu Being a Puppet, Not CGI

The Mandalorian and Grogu is set to debut in theaters on May 22. The Pedro Pascal sci-fi movie is a continuation of the three-season Disney+ series The Mandalorian , making it the first live-action Star Wars subfranchise to graduate from the small screen to the big screen. There are multiple reasons why this is the case, but one of the biggest reasons is also the most adorable: Grogu.

In addition to being one of the most merchandised Star Wars characters of the past few years, the snack-loving little scamp has helped propel The Mandalorian into becoming one of the franchise’s biggest small-screen phenomena. However, the success of the show is contingent in large part on a single decision: having Grogu be brought to life by puppetry and animatronics (with CGI sweetening) rather than by CGI alone.

Grogu Could Have Been Fully CGI

Strangely, one of the most important figures in the decision to keep the Grogu puppet is none other than the famously intense German filmmaking legend Werner Herzog. The Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo director played the recurring character the Client in The Mandalorian Season 1, back when Grogu had not yet received his official name and was known by the characters as The Child and colloquially as “Baby Yoda.”

In addition to telling Variety that the puppet was “heartbreakingly beautiful,” Herzog fought for it to be kept in the final product. Early on, while filming Season 1, The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni were prepping an alternate version of a scene that they had just shot so they could redo it without the puppet, in case they wanted to bring Grogu to life with CGI. Filoni later told Vanity Fair that this disturbed Herzog greatly, and he called them “cowards” for not having faith in the puppet, telling them to “leave it.”

“Leave it” is exactly what they did. The animatronic puppet version of Grogu was what viewers saw when Grogu made his debut in the first episode of The Mandalorian in November 2019, and in every one of his appearances since then (which includes a cameo in the Disney+ series The Book of Boba Fett). Naturally, history has proven that Werner Herzog was right.

Puppet Grogu Is Way More Adorable

Grogu’s adorableness is turbo-charged thanks to the fact that he is portrayed by a real object with which the human performers are interacting. While there have been plenty of cute digital creatures featured on-screen over the years, CGI characters have a habit of landing in the uncanny valley, while there is still an undeniable magic to practical puppetry.

Real light hitting real objects makes these characters inhabit their worlds in a way that feels entirely believable and ignites the imagination. The idea that Grogu can actually reach out and touch Din Djarin’s hand has an inestimable impact on the feeling that he is genuinely sentient, which makes him that much cuter. In this manner, Grogu feels just as real (and just as lovable) as Kermit the Frog, or the threadbare stuffed animal that a child carries with them everywhere.

‘The Mandalorian’ (2019)Credit: Disney+

Not only is Grogu’s adorableness central to the fact that fans have accepted him with open arms, but it is also, in fact, core to the entire story of The Mandalorian. “Baby Yoda” needed to be innocent and vulnerable enough to melt the iron will of Pedro Pascal’s hardened bounty hunter character, Din Djarin. This was the entire arc of Season 1, when Djarin wrestled with the fact that he was meant to deliver Grogu to a client who he knew was a threat to the child.

Additionally, the fact that Grogu is a practical puppet emphasizes his connection to the Star Wars legacy character Yoda, who is a member of the same species. While a younger Yoda was created with CGI in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the Jedi master was a puppet (operated and voiced by Muppet veteran Frank Oz) in the original trilogy, which took place shortly before The Mandalorian on the Star Wars timeline. Grogu’s visual similarities to that puppet thus connect him both to the era in which the story takes place and the overall legacy of the franchise at large.

Grogu Is the Face of The Mandalorian

Another reason why it is of paramount importance that Grogu is a believable creature is the fact that he is the only lead character whose face can be seen for the majority of his scenes with Din Djarin. Djarin is a member of a clan of Mandalorians who place immense symbolic importance on keeping their faces covered. While Pedro Pascal’s face has made several appearances throughout the series (as it will in the upcoming movie, as hinted at by the trailer), the moments in which it is exposed are greatly challenging to the character and involve him sacrificing part of his identity.

Considering this fact, these scenes do not occur often, meaning that Pascal’s performance is mostly limited to his voice and his physicality (or that of Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder, the stunt doubles who are often behind the armor). While the character is still compelling thanks to the nuanced work of these performers, the mask, in addition to the fact that the character is stoic and not talkative to begin with, leaves an emotional gap between the character and the audience.

‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ (2026)Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It is up to Din Djarin’s scene partners to take his emotional cues and amplify them with their reactions. While the character has had a number of stellar performers join him for various scenes to do just that (including Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze and Carl Weathers as Greef Karga), he is most often depicted alone with Grogu, placing all the pressure of steering the emotions of the scene on the puppet.

This is why the reality of the character must be completely believable every second he is onscreen. If Grogu were an entirely CGI character, it is highly likely that, at least in brief moments, this believability would have been punctured. If this had happened often enough, this could have derailed the entire series, preventing it from ever lasting long enough to have been made into a movie in the first place.

Grogu being played by a puppet is just one of many key creative decisions that have helped make the Star Wars franchise into the ever-popular, sprawling behemoth that it is today. No Film School has broken down a great number of these choices over the years, including the franchise’s iconic opening credits crawl, the nuance behind the villain Darth Vader, and the movies’ evolving cinematography.