
The Season 1 finale of The Mandalorian starts off with two stormtroopers yucking it up and punching Baby Yoda. Sacrilege, yes, but it’s all tamer than it sounds.
Turns out, punching Baby Yoda needed to be a very soft punch, due to how expensive the cute little puppet cost:
“I remember the first take that I did when I punched it…,” Pally told reporters at TCA. “They called ‘cut’ and Jon, who was watching on a monitor in his office, came down and said, “‘I just want to let you know that this is the hero [expensive puppet] and it costs, like, $5 million. I want you to hit it, but I want you to know that.’”
“Mandalorian” Guest Stars Warned Not to Punch Baby Yoda Too Hard | TVLine
Now we know exactly where 5% of the reported $100 million budget for The Mandalorian went: The Child. Must be all the mechanical stuff inside the puppet?

That’s one expensive little green guy. You’d think for that $5 million they would have gotten at least a half dozen prop Childs? You know, the kind that evil stormtroopers could punch and kick and stomp?
Just thinking.