While April Fool’s Day was a relatively somber experience this year, leave it to 4/20 to provide a healthy dose of unfiltered and THC-fueled antics. It would appear the good folks over at IGN were particularly inspired, taking it upon themselves to fire off a playful prank destined to rankle the feathers of die-hard Star Wars fans. The gaming website decided to craft a trailer for Disney Plus’ wildly popular Mandalorian Season 2, masking it as the real deal and quickly amassing a healthy two-million views.
Clemens Bilan/Getty Images
The opening scenes were innocuous enough, striking a somber tone that seemingly centered around the threat of losing the beloved sidekick Baby Yoda. Before long, Mandalorian was grappling with the idea of casting his young friend aside, only to be met with the big reveal. Cut to a teenage Yoda, smoking on some space-weed, staring defiantly at his father figure with a freshly flipped bird. Alas, it was all a joke — albeit one packaged rather ably as the real deal.
As such, the clip left many Star Wars fans feeling a simultaneous blend of shame and anger, the likes of which were felt by the notorious Anakin Skywalker himself — moments before going on a murderous rampage. One quick gander through the YouTube comments makes it abundantly clear that the masses were not amused by the attempt at a post-dated April Fool’s joke, a fact doubly confirmed by the staggering amount of dislikes. Check it out for yourself, and sound off — did you find yourself, quite possibly high as Teenage Yoday himself, duped by this elaborate ruse?