- This week, we're getting ready for "Star Wars Jedi: Survivor" and more.
[exciting music]
"Star Wars Jedi: Survivor" arrives tomorrow.
The long-awaited sequel video game to the smash hit
"Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" is bringing
the Stinger Mantis crew back together again
for an adventure five years after the first story.
Pull on your ponchos, give your BD unit a nice oil bath,
and get ready to be immersed in the journey of our hero Cal Kestis.
"Star Wars Jedi: Survivor" is on its way.
"Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures" will debut on Star Wars Day,
May the 4th, but a new short dropped earlier this week
introducing the dread pirate Taborr and his crew.
Can Kai, Lys, and Nubs save the day?
As far as we're concerned, Nubs can do anything he puts his mind to.
Catch up on all six shorts, then gather the younglings in your life
to watch the series debut next week.
Last week brought us the finale of "The Mandalorian" Season 3,
and we're still thinking about what it all means
for the future of Mandalore and its people.
In the most recent chapters of the ongoing series,
Grogu got a new family name, a shiny new piece of armor,
and a mech suit with the added bonus of simple speech.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. - [coos]
- A bonus for Grogu, at least. Not so much for his dad.
- No. - Yes.
- Hey, Grogu. - No.
- Mando found his way back to the Living Waters
below the surface of Mandalore with a lot of help from Bo-Katan,
and Bo managed to bring together two warring factions:
the rule-following Armorer and the Children of the Watch
and the Mandalorians who think it's A-OK
to take your helmet off whenever you feel like it,
like for eating soup.
The darksaber continued to change hands, Lizzo and Jack Black joined the galaxy,
and Moff Gideon's master plan went up in flames.
Plus, Grogu jumped and jumped and jumped for joy.
And snacks. Grogu is all of us.
Watch the full season for yourself now, only on Disney+.
To be honest, "The Mandalorian" could have been called "Everybody Loves Grogu"
because everyone loves the little guy, including the cast and crew of the series.
When we had a chance to sit down with Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni,
Pedro Pascal, and Rick Famuyiwa,
you know we had to talk about the show's tiniest star.
Speaking of anomalies, Grogu. We haven't even mentioned him yet.
We gotta talk about him.
Where does the name Grogu come from?
- I came up with it. - Uh-huh.
- I thought he'd have to have a name that was a little bit--
he's cute but he's a little ugly.
He's ugly-cute. - He's adorable!
- But he's adorable because he's not perfect.
He's got the cheeks, but he's got, like, weird little pointy teeth
and he's got weird peach fuzz.
And so, you know, in our design,
when he looked too cute, he didn't look right,
but we found that right balance.
And "Star Wars" was always about--
everything's a little bit weird but cute anyway.
- From just the design of the character obviously being referential
to a character from the original film that everyone knows and loves
and that species that has a lot of mystery around it,
there's just a kind of mix of all of it
that I think really made this character connect.
- Can you quantify what it is about Grogu
that just makes everyone ten years old again?
- The first time I saw him was this illustration, actually,
which immediately, I understood they had an ace in the hole
with a character like that.
And then in person, I would say that you wouldn't believe
how realistic the puppet is,
and that has to do with the incredible design team
behind making him.
- There's an innocence about him, obviously,
but there's also, you know, sort of this transformative power that he has,
in terms of the lives around him change
probably more than he does himself, you know?
And I think there's something about him that makes us wanna both take care of him
but also examine who we are.
- What we experience as an audience, the show,
is what you experience when you're with him on set.
And there's a remote control Grogu that you can get in a wide
and is moving in the scene,
and then you get the one that's, like, connected to NASA.
- Uh-huh. Right? [laughs]
- That you can use for a close-up and makes for an incredible scene partner.
- It was also hard because no matter what we named him,
it wasn't gonna be--it couldn't be Baby Yoda, which is what I called him.
- Well, the key there was-- remember I was saying
that when we shot the scene-- 'cause I was directing that episode--
I felt it was good to have Ahsoka there
'cause she's, like, a good balancing point.
Mando, at first, reacted like the audience.
Like, "Grogu? That's strange."
But when he says it...
- Grogu?
- [coos] - Grogu looks at him.
And I always related that to, like, when I have a dog
and the dog starts to learn its name,
and you say its name and it looks at you.
It's the most heartwarming thing.
And so when you see that he recognizes his name
and that, until Ahsoka says his name,
that he probably hasn't heard it in a long time.
- Thank you for the gift of Grogu.
- [coos] - I love when he does that.
That's it for this week, but for more on these stories
and other news from around the galaxy, check out StarWars.com.
And be sure to join us right here for "This Week in Star Wars"
every Thursday.
Thanks for watching, and may the Force be with you.