'The Mandalorian': Giancarlo Esposito Hints At Why Moff Gideon Wants Baby Yoda

Giancarlo Esposito's character stayed in the shadows for much of The Mandalorian season one, but the actor made a big impact in the final episode. Turns out that the villainous Moff Gideon has intimate knowledge of protagonists like Mando and Cara Dune, but more importantly, he's willing to use a whole squadron of soldiers to get his hands on Baby Yoda. (I'm sure /Film readers can relate.) But what is Gideon's ultimate plan? Esposito provided a hint in a recent interview, and you can read his quote below.

Now that we're several weeks removed from the end of The Mandalorian and all of the excitement surrounding the reveal of The Darksaber (and all of the history that weapon carries with it), we can take a step back and think about the larger scope of the show – and specifically, what exactly Moff Gideon might want with Baby Yoda. While the complete answer won't present itself until season 2 arrives, Esposito gave a small tease to IGN while at the Television Critics Association winter panel a few days ago:

"Like any great leader or scientist – clue, clue, clue – with someone who is advanced in a certain way, yeah, you could want to be their best friend, or you could want to co-opt what is inside them to figure out how to make all of us a little better at humanity. So it's that power and control of a Moff leader who is trying to put the universe back together. But, how does he know everything? How does he know everything that's going on? He's a very interesting character and I'm so honored to be a part of this production."

Early in the season, we speculated that cloning could be a major factor in this show since Doctor Pershing was wearing an emblem worn by all of the clones on the planet Kamino in the prequel trilogy. Even if Baby Yoda turns out to not be a clone, he's still proven to be a capable Force user, and since there was some dialogue later in the series about needing to "extract the necessary material" from Baby Yoda, perhaps Moff Gideon wants to use Baby Yoda's midi-chlorians to harness the Force.

But to what end? From what we've seen in the series, it would make sense that Gideon would want the ability to manipulate the Force all to himself. But Esposito's quote – "you could want to co-opt what is inside them to figure out how to make all of us a little better at humanity" – seems to indicate that he has more altruistic plans in mind. Would a villain really want to spread this ability far and wide, or is something else at play here? Is Moff Gideon a traditional villain at all, or is he just a guy who's willing to break a few eggs to make an omelette? We'll find out when The Mandalorian season 2 debuts in Fall 2020.