The Newest ‘Star Wars’ Series Is a ‘Clone Wars’ Spinoff About the Bad Batch
Star Wars: The Clone Wars had such a successful final run. After being off the air for six years, the seventh season was as much of an ode to fans as it was to their favorite characters. It not only included the final Clone Wars arc for Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex, but it also included a highly-anticipated arc about the Bad Batch. Now Lucasfilm is releasing a brand new series on the Bad Batch, coming to Disney+ in 2021.
A new Disney+ series is coming that focuses on the Bad Batch
In a big announcement on the morning of July 13, Lucasfilm and Disney released the news about Star Wars: The Bad Batch. It’s a new series coming to Disney+ sometime next year.
“Giving new and existing fans the final chapter of Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been our honor at Disney+, and we are overjoyed by the global response to this landmark series,” Agnes Chu, senior vice president, Content, Disney+, said in a statement on the official Star Wars website. “While The Clone Wars may have come to its conclusion, our partnership with the groundbreaking storytellers and artists at Lucasfilm Animation is only beginning. We are thrilled to bring Dave Filoni’s vision to life through the next adventures of the Bad Batch.”
Dave Filoni was the supervising director and executive producer of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and has gone on to work on Star Wars Rebels and The Mandalorian. He’ll now act as executive producer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Athena Portillo, Brad Rau, and Jennifer Corbett join Filoni as executive producers as well. Carrie Beck will co-executive producer and Josh Rimes will produce. Rau will be the supervising director and Corbett is the head writer for the show. Nearly everyone here worked on The Clone Wars, so it’ll truly feel like a spinoff.
This will take place in an under-discovered era of the ‘Star Wars’ timelines
Appearing for the first time in the first four episodes of Season 7, the Bad Batch consisted of mutated clones. They were genetically enhanced to better execute their missions. You have Crosshair, an excellent sniper thanks to his modified eyesight. There’s Wrecker, who’s very strong and loves destroying things. And Tech, whose name is also self-explanatory since he is the tech genius of the bunch. Hunter is their leader and has enhanced senses all around, enabling him to “hunt” a specific target better.
They were different than the regular Clone troopers in every way. By Episode 4, Echo joined their team, after they rescued him from the Separatists with the help of Rex and Anakin Skywalker. Echo was thought to be dead after Season 3. However, it turns out the Separatists were using his knowledge for strategies against the Republic. He felt too different to rejoin Rex and the 501st Legion, which is one reason he joined the Bad Batch.
From the Star Wars website, Star Wars: The Bad Batch will follow these “elite and experimental clones” in the “immediate aftermath of the Clone War.” The Republic turned into the Empire and the Jedi are exterminated. It’s a “rapidly changing galaxy” with the new totalitarian regime that Emperor Palpatine has put into place, and Clone troopers are being turned into Stormtroopers, who no longer consist of just clones.
“In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose,” the statement said.
Where did we last leave off with the Bad Batch?
The events of Season 7 take place over the course of a few months. By the time we get to Episode 9, the events of Revenge of the Sith start to take place, which we know only take about a week to unfold. Just for example, from Padmé Amidala’s small baby bump in Episode 2, to her giving birth in Episode III, it’s been at least a few months.
With that said, this means the last time we saw the Bad Batch was months before the end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There’s a lot they could have done in that time; they’re probably conducting clandestine missions for the Republic.
However, did they have working inhibitor chips and executed Order 66? They didn’t seem to work with Jedi often, but if they did, they could have wiped out so many in the Jedi Purge. And with the description of the show saying that they’re trying to find a “new purpose,” do they defect from the Empire?
Considering they always seemed to have more agency than regular clones, this could be the case. But we’ll just have to wait for its 2021 release date to find out.
