‘The Mandalorian’ Managed To Avoid Some Massive Spoilers Thanks To Disney’s Impressive Restraint

On the one hand, that fan-favorite The Mandalorian character “baby Yoda” wasn’t spoiled — along with many other surprises — is due to the fact that Disney released only select clips to a small group of press before the show’s premiere. (Then again, in true Marvel fashion, most of the promotional materials for the Disney+ flagship series have utilized very little from the program.) On the other hand, as creator Jon Favreau recently indicated to Entertainment Tonight, this is also due to Disney and Lucasfilm’s uncharacteristic restraint with “merchandising and toy catalogs.”

As noticed by Collider, Favreau and writer-director Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels) spoke with ET on the red carpet for The Mandalorian premiere last week. Video from the interview was released online earlier today, and when the pair was asked about the insense secrecy around the show, Favreau chimed in about Disney and Lucasfilm’s known penchant for making toys — and how they managed to stave off this urge for the sake of the show.

“I have to thank Disney and Lucasfilm, because the way the cat usually gets out of the bag with that stuff is merchandising and toy catalogs and things like that,” he said. “We really wanted to have it be that you had to watch it yourself, so that every time you watch the show, there are new twists and secrets that come out. That requires a lot of restraint from the people who are footing the bill, saying they’re gonna hold back on certain things so that the public doesn’t know ahead of time.”

“Part of that,” Favreau added, “was holding back on some of the merchandise and holding back on some of the characters.”

So, that is evidently why there aren’t any officially licensed baby Yoda toys available for purchase at the moment. You can check out ET‘s interview with Favreau and Filoni below.