Disney Announces ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Series
Earlier this year the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuted on Disney+ to a great degree of fanfare and excitement. It was an appropriate closure to the show with some new characters introduced along the way. While the story of sisters Rafa and Trace seemed to just kind of evaporate, there were others that sparked curiosity as viewers approached the arrival of Order 66, most especially the quartet known as the Bad Batch. Now there’s news that Disney+ plans to release a full on spin-off series revolving around this ragtag group of specialized clones.
The four soldiers were essentially clones, though their resemblance to their million-strong counterparts was distant at best. Originally known as Clone Force 99 in their 2015 debut at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, the special forces team consists of their leader, Sergeant Hunter, sniper Crosshairs, computer guru Tech and assault specialist Wrecker. Their unconventional strategy on the battlefield and strong personalities made them instant fan favorites, enough to earn the squad their own series.
Coming to Disney+ in 2021, Star Wars: The Bad Batch will feature the team after the events of Star Wars: The Clone Wars series and how they’ll operate in a reconfigured universe where the Empire continues to amass strength. This leads one to believe that as they not only look and act differently from traditional clones, they also likely did not have the Order 66 chip installed in their brains like all the others.
The possibilities seem endless for the direction of this show which already has more potential than the most recent Star Wars animated series, Resistance, which lasted a mere two seasons. While mum’s the word on any additional details, animation style would lend itself to go more toward the Clone Wars route than Resistance in order to stay more consistent to the squad’s roots.
Lock and load, troopers! Star Wars: The Bad Batch will be deploying next year!
Scene from Star Wars: The Clone Wars
BURBANK, Calif. (July 13, 2020) – Today Disney+ ordered its next animated series from Lucasfilm, “Star Wars: The Bad Batch.” Fresh off of the critically-acclaimed series finale of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” the Disney+ original series will premiere on the streaming service in 2021.
The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in “The Clone Wars”) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch – a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.
“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,” said Agnes Chu, senior vice president, Content, Disney+. “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.”
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” is executive produced by Dave Filoni (“The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”), Athena Portillo (“Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Star Wars Rebels”), Brad Rau (“Star Wars Rebels,” “Star Wars Resistance”) and Jennifer Corbett (“Star Wars Resistance,” “NCIS”) with Carrie Beck (“The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars Rebels”) as co-executive producer and Josh Rimes as producer (“Star Wars Resistance”). Rau is also serving as supervising director with Corbett as head writer.
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