BABY YODAIS (PROBABLY) NOT ACTUALLY YODA
The Mandalorian takes place after the fall of the Empire, but before the rise of Kylo Ren and the First Order. As such, the timeline just doesn’t support the notion that our collective bundle of joy is the actual Yoda, who dies — at 900 years old — in The Return of the Jedi.
THEORY NO. 1: BABY YODA IS A CLONE
Cloning technology exists in the Star Wars universe. There’s the clone army, of course, commissioned by a Jedi master more than a decade before the Clone Wars. That said, it’s notoriously difficult (but not impossible) to clone Force-sensitive beings. So, convinced we are not.
THEORY NO. 2: THE CHILD IS YODA’S BABY
This theory relates to Yaddle, a Force-sensitive being who is of the same deliberately unnamed species as Yoda. The character, seen in The Phantom Menace and several prequel films, could have, in theory, had a baby with
Yoda. But this seems unlikely since Yoda is notably not a fan of romantic relationships — at least those involving Jedi. Remember his advice to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith? “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
THEORY NO. 3: THE CHILD IS JUST A BEING WHO IS OF YODA’S SPECIES
George Lucas has been famously cryptic about Yoda’s species and we have seen only a few similar beings over the course of the franchise. But the most simple explanation for Baby Yoda is that the tot simply shares the Jedi Master’s species and his abilities in the Force.