Speaking with CNN, The Simpsons‘ Executive Producer Al Jean explains how The Force Awakens From Its Nap – loaded with GFFA nods from across the Skywalker Saga and beyond – openly tipped the hat to every corner of the galaxy apart from the obvious and arguably most popular, that of The Mandalorian.
Titled The Force Awakens From Its Nap, this mini episode features Marge Simpson leaving pacifier-obsessive Maggie at a Star Wars daycare of sorts, where characters such as Lando Calrissian, General Grievous, android BB-8 and Jedi warrior Ahsoka Tano oversee the infants.
Apparently, the rich tapestry of a galaxy far, far away was completely open for the animators to plunder, but they weren’t allowed to mess around with The Child/Baby Yoda/Grogu from The Mandalorian.
“Grogu is the most popular character created anywhere in fiction in the last year, and you don’t want to overexpose him,” Jean noted. “So they let us do a little tribute to him but not a big reference, which I think is great.”
In case you missed it, in one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sequence, Maggie emerges from the wreckage of a toppled shelf with Baby Yoda ears.
