I never thought, in my life, that I would say the phrase, “Wow, I relate to Werner Herzog,” and yet, here I am. One of the stars in The Mandalorian, Herzog had a very visceral reaction to the puppet for baby Yoda—meaning that sources have said that Herzog became very protective of the puppet.
Or, more like Werner Herzog straight up forgot that baby Yoda was a puppet and not actually real, according to Deborah Chow, who directed the third episode of The Mandalorian:
Werner is talking to the baby as if it was a real thing. And I’m trying to direct Werner. And I’m just like, “How did I get here? How did my life end up like this?”
To be fair to Werner Herzog, he isn’t alone. All of us on the internet have taken to caring exclusively about baby Yoda instead of literally any other aspect of The Mandalorian, which isn’t fair to the show because it rules aside from baby Yoda, as well. But when an entire fleet of Mandalorians descend on bounty hunters in the name of baby Yoda, you have to respect that this entire show is also just about how much everyone loves and wants to protect him.
What I love so much about these set stories is that Werner Herzog has been on quite the emotional journey when it comes to joining Star Wars. There are also stories about Herzog yelling at series creator Jon Favreau and writer/director Dave Filoni and calling them “cowards” when they took baby Yoda out of a scene in case they wanted to CGI him in, instead of using the puppet that we ended up seeing onscreen. Sure, the puppetry aspect of the show is probably why it feels like an oldschool Star Wars movie to me, but they just wanted to cover their bases. Herzog wasn’t having it.
Do I think that Herzog maybe thinks that baby Yoda is a real star and baby that he can love? Does he think that he is an actor and can be directed? Absolutely, because Deborah Chow also told us as much:
I had a day with one of the weirdest moments I’ve ever had directing. I was directing Werner with the puppet, and Werner had just fallen in love with the baby. Werner, I think, had forgotten it wasn’t actually a live creature, and started sort of… directing the baby.
Sharing the screen with the most adorable puppet to ever have lived is probably not easy, but I’m glad that Werner Herzog decided that he was going to love this little green baby in a big coat with his whole heart. At the end of the day, maybe I am Werner Herzog and he’s me—except for the fact that I would never direct baby Yoda. He’s perfect and can do no wrong.
(image: Lucasfilm)
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