WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Mandalorian starring Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, and Taika Waititi, streaming on Disney+.
The Mandalorian offers viewers a unique look at parts of the Star Wars universe usually relegated to comic books and novelizations. It also offers up a myriad of new characters and places, as well as mysteries, which bloom countless fan theories.
One of these fan theories has even inspired its own fan project, a short comic by The Force Media which provides a quick and concise explanation of the popular fan theory that Baby Yoda is a clone of the original Yoda.
The Mandalorian follows the titular bounty hunter as he makes a living taking down marks. One particularly profitable job comes in the form of Werner Herzog as The Client, who offers an arguably unreasonable amount of incredibly valuable Beskar steel in exchange for Mando retrieving a package for him. When the package turns out to be what can only be lovingly described as Baby Yoda, Mando has a change of heart and takes The Child back by force.
The primary idea is that The Child is a clone of Yoda himself, one that was commissioned if not created by the Emperor himself. It's been known that The Child is around 50 years old, which is still basically a toddler for those of Yoda's unnamed species. While cloning Force-sensitive beings has historically been incredibly difficult in the Star Wars universe, the practice itself is one of the very foundations of the franchise.
The second film in the prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones has the most information regarding cloning in any of the main entries into the series, and as such is a major part of the theory. The cloning facility on the planet Kamino was overseen by Kaminoan Taun We, even though it was being run in secret by Palpatine. After the clone army was approved by the Senate, Yoda told Mace Windu he would go to Kamino and see the clone army that was being developed. While this would provide ample opportunity for Palpatine to have Yoda's DNA stolen to begin developing powerful Force-sensitive clones for his own purposes, the comic by The Force Media offers another explanation.
The comic opens with Taun We escaping from the Empire and one of their Star Destroyers after the cloning facilities are deemed unnecessary and destroyed. Palpatine sends General Pryde to have her captured and brought to him directly. Begrudgingly, Pryde contacts Greef Karga and contracts him for the job. Greef contacts Mando for what would be the bounty hunter's first job. After taking out the guards, Mando finds Taun We, who gives herself up willingly.
When Taun We is delivered on Exegol, the Emperor is waiting for her alongside his personal guard, who he sends away once Taun We has properly arrived. He has her follow him to the site of a spaceship crash. It's a small vessel, possibly an emergency or escape pod. Inside lies the body of Jedi Master Yoda, his nails still embedded in the side of his ship from when he tried to claw his way out. Emperor Palpatine wanted Taun We to extract Yoda's genetic material and get to work with her accelerated aging techniques that were refined on Kamino, presumably leading to the show's Baby Yoda.
It's a fan theory that doesn't hold up under intense scrutiny but is still incredibly fun to analyze. Speculation is of course one of the time-honored traditions of any fandom, and The Mandalorian is no exception.