Baby Yoda's Soup-Sipping Moment: How Mandalorian Director Bryce Dallas Howard's Kids Made It Happen

Matt Webb Mitovich
·2 min read

It was the bone broth that launched 1,000 memes. And Mandalorian director Bryce Dallas Howard’s kids deserve much of the credit.

Early on in Episode 4 of the Disney+ series’ first season, a brawl between Mando and rebel trooper-turned-mercenary Cara Dune is brought to an adorable halt when they look over and see The Child (aka Baby Yoda) — who had been left behind inside the Sorgan cafe — casually observing them, whilst sipping warm soup. Instantly, the visual became the poster child for all Baby Yoda memes (though the Child’s fidgeting with the Razor Crest’s radio is a close second).

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Howard, as part of ATX TV’s At Home virtual panel for The Mandalorian, shared how that cutaway came to be.

“My kids were on set pretty much every day,” she shared. “And even before we came to set, when it was the storyboards for the episode… when we were just conceiving of things, my [then-six] daughter would come into the editing room and whenever Baby [Yoda] wasn’t on screen, she would lean over to me and be like, ‘Where’s Baby? Where’s Baby? Where’s Baby?’ [Executive producer] Jon [Favreau] picked up on that, like, ‘Oh yeah — if the kid is wondering where Baby is, then we need to know where Baby is at all times.’

“There was something with the kids where Baby was very real and Baby was in danger and they needed to see where Baby was at all times… They needed to know Baby was safe,” Howard continued. “And from that a variety of moments came up that were constructed just because we wanted everyone to know Baby was safe.”

Now, maybe you are wondering, as we were, how Howard’s two kids, then age 6 and 11, kept super-secret that they had spent several days on-set with a Star Wars character that no one knew existed until the series premiered last November.

“When the kids went back to school, every single day I would say, ‘So, what are you not gonna talk about today?’ And they would say, ‘Baby!!!’” she previously told THR.

Launch Gallery: Baby Yoda's 18 Best Moments, Ranked

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