He’s the new face of the Star Wars universe, so it should come as no surprise that Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, aka the breakout character from The Mandalorian Disney+ streaming series, has taken his rightful place that Master Yoda once presided over, at the former Lucasfilm/Disney Sandcrawler building in Singapore.
You can also say that the Force is strong in us as when the iconic bronze statue of Master Yoda was removed from the building once owned by Lucasfilm and home to Lucasfilm Singapore (for now), we predicted that he could possibly be replaced with Grogu one day.
Now, two and a half years later, a life-size bronze statue of Grogu has filled the void in the garden, and it’s giving Star Wars fans another reason to head over and snap a photo of their own.
According to industry scuttlebug, our original story article on the departure of the Master Yoda statue back in April 2021 partially inspired the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) Singapore team to push for a replacement statue. After George Lucas took back his Master Yoda statue, the team wanted to restore the once iconic memento in some form as in the seven years when Master Yoda graced the location, Star Wars fans, along with Disney and Lucasfilm staff from all over the world would make regular “pilgrimages” to the building, to pay respects to the iconic Jedi Master, and take photos and selfies with it.
Earlier this month, the newly sculpted bronze statue of Grogu was placed in the garden at the exact same spot, to the delight of staff and Star Wars fans, who started to head back to the location to take fresh photos of the unofficial new face of the Star Wars universe.
Upon closer look at the statue, one can spot an “MK © Lucasfilm” engraved signature on the base at the back of the statue, and after some digging around, it seemingly points to current 3D Modeling Supervisor at the ILM Singapore team, Michal Kriukow, who apparently designed the new statue.
Unfortunately, Grogu only managed to arrive back at the garden a month after the announcement of Lucasfilm Singapore’s shutdown, but that didn’t stop the team members from gathering for group shots with Grogu.
Now that Grogu is in Singapore, isn’t it time that we find a way to bring Din Djarin here as well? This is the way Disney!
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
Natalie
