The Mandalorian has taken the world by storm since its release in November of 2019. The show was met with critical praise and, compared to other Star Wars properties, was a lot less controversial. Since then, the second season has already wrapped production and it's been reported that a third season is already in development. There's been many teases about the show's next season, which is set to premiere on Disney+ this October, and a number of filmmakers have recently been confirmed to be directing an episode.
Disney has put the pedal down on promoting this new series, and they struck gold with the new character, Baby Yoda. Although Pedro Pascal wasn't surprised by the character's popularity, executives at the company were more than astounded. It seems the Baby Yoda mania isn't stopping anytime soon.
NEWS
In a new report from Express, data from SEMRush indicates that Baby Yoda is now the most-searched Star Wars character in the franchise, gaining "more than 4.7 million average monthly searches over the past 12 months." Behind him comes the other star of the popular TV series, the Mandalorian himself, with a little less than 2.5 million average searches. Both of them have toppled the villainous Darth Vader, who was previously at the top and now only has 893,250 monthly searches.
WHAT THIS MEANS
Most of the Star Wars community was aware of the widespread admiration for Baby Yoda, so this probably does not come as a shock to people. Ever since the Child was revealed at the end of The Mandalorian's first episode, it was clear that Jon Favreau was taking this story in a much different direction than fans had anticipated.
With much uncertainty of the Child's overall purpose, and Yoda's species, even hardcore fans are left only to speculate on what his origins may be. When you combine his unrivaled cuteness and charm, it would likely explain the inflation in searches of the newly beloved personality. The ambiguity surrounding the show's lead also might explain his increase, and why the Mandalorian's searches exceeded those of Darth Vader.
Fans still have burning questions they want answered in the second season, and once it actually hits the streaming service this Fall, these numbers will probably continue to rise and remain atop of the most-search Star Wars character list.
