While we can thank Steven Spielberg for insisting that Babu Frik make his ‘whey-HEY!‘ return near the end of The Rise of Skywalker, the character was nurtured under the directorial hand of J.J. Abrams, and as a mark of respect for that work Jon Favreau invited Abrams to the set of The Mandalorian and Grogu – hence the thank you to Abrams in the credits – to get his opinion on the returning trio of Anzellans from the third season of The Mandalorian, and the fourth addition to the gang.
“We were developing the live-action version of him and showing Dave versions – we’ve got to show Dave. Because there’s a special thing, when you use a [character] – even though it belongs to Star Wars, if somebody came up with the character, you go [to them].
“Like when I was working with the Anzellans, I called up JJ, and JJ came to the set. Because you want him to know that, you know, ‘I appreciate what you did. Can we – do you mind? Are we handling this well? Are you happy?’ And with Embo, same thing with Dave.”