Star Wars: The Bad Batch - Wikipedia

Development

After Disney acquired Lucasfilm in October 2012, the animated Star Wars television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars was canceled in March 2013.[76] A new animated series, Star Wars Rebels, was prioritized.[77] Lucasfilm said some unfinished episodes of The Clone Wars would still be released as "bonus content",[76] including a four episode arc that introduces a squad of clone troopers with genetic mutations known as the Bad Batch. The idea for this story came directly from Star Wars creator George Lucas.[8] The four episodes were shown as unfinished story reels at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in April 2015.[78] By September 2016, The Clone Wars and Rebels supervising director Dave Filoni had stepped back from that position on Rebels so he could focus on writing that series and on developing future Star Wars series with Lucasfilm Animation.[79]

In July 2018, Filoni announced that a final season of The Clone Wars was being produced for the new streaming service Disney+.[80] The unfinished Bad Batch episodes were completed for the season, with some changes,[8] while development on a spin-off series focused on the Bad Batch began at the same time.[81] Disney+ announced the spin-off series, titled Star Wars: The Bad Batch, in July 2020. The announcement described the series as being Filoni's vision, and he was executive producing alongside Lucasfilm's Athena Portillo, supervising director Brad Rau, and head writer Jennifer Corbett, with Lucasfilm's Carrie Beck and Josh Rimes as co-executive producer and producer, respectively.[1] Filoni described the series as being "very much in the vein" of The Clone Wars and said it would stay true to Lucas's vision for that series of telling epic, exciting adventure stories.[82]

A second season was announced in August 2021, before the first-season finale was released.[83] At Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023, a third and final season was announced.[84] The producers intended to tell a three-season story from the beginning and were glad to be able to complete their plans as intended. Rau said the series would end the Bad Batch's story, but would not be the end of the "Clone Wars universe".[49]

Casting and voice recording

The first trailer for the series, which was released in December 2020, confirmed that Dee Bradley Baker would return from The Clone Wars as the voice of all the clone troopers, including the members of the Bad Batch, Captain Rex, and many others.[7][13] Baker replaced New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, who portrayed the clones—as well as the bounty hunter Jango Fett whose genetic material the clones are created from—in the Star Wars prequel films.[85] Also starring in The Bad Batch is Michelle Ang as Omega, a young female clone of Jango Fett.[27] Ang was cast in-part because her New Zealand accent aligns with Morrison's, and she was grateful for the opportunity to embrace that side of her identity considering she does not look like "what the world thinks of when they think New Zealander" as a person of Chinese and Malaysian descent. Baker and Ang recorded the first episode of the series together, but other work commitments forced Ang to travel home to New Zealand soon after and the COVID-19 pandemic prevented her from returning to record with Baker for many subsequent episodes. Ang instead recorded much of her dialogue for the series remotely over video calls.[29] Ang and Baker were able to record the series finale together in-person, which they said was an emotional experience for them and the crew.[86]

Emerie Karr, an adult female clone, is introduced in the second season. Voice actor Keisha Castle-Hughes was not told that Emerie is a clone at first, but she suspected that the character was related to Omega after the producers asked her to use her natural New Zealand accent for the role. Castle-Hughes previously had a brief non-speaking role as Queen Apailana in the film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).[40] Daniel Logan, who portrayed Boba Fett and other young male clones in the prequel films and The Clone Wars, returned to voice a younger clone named Mox in the third season of The Bad Batch.[60] Mox is accompanied by two even younger clones, Deke and Stak, who are voiced by Logan's fellow New Zealand actor Julian Dennison.[61][87]

A younger version of the character Fennec Shand from The Mandalorian was revealed to be appearing in the series with the first trailer's release, and actress Ming-Na Wen soon confirmed that she would reprise her role as Shand.[51] The trailer also revealed that Stephen Stanton and Andrew Kishino were reprising their respective The Clone Wars roles as Tarkin and Saw Gerrera.[13][45] Other actors who reprised roles from The Clone Wars in the first season include Ben Diskin as AZI-3;[30] Matthew Wood as the battle droids;[42] Bob Bergen as Lama Su;[30] Gwendoline Yeo as Nala Se;[30] Nika Futterman, Kath Soucie, and Cara Pifko as the family of clone deserter Cut Lawquane;[47] Brigitte Kali and Elizabeth Rodriguez as the Martez sisters;[52] Corey Burton as Cad Bane and Seth Green as Bane's droid Todo 360;[53] and Tom Kane, who narrated the opening of each The Clone Wars episode, provided similar narration for The Bad Batch's premiere episode.[46]

Reprising roles from the Star Wars films in the first season are Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine,[44] Wood as Bib Fortuna,[43] and Rena Owen as Taun We.[55] The producers knew early in development that the first episode would begin with a retelling of Order 66 from the perspective of the Bad Batch, and decided to include the Jedi Depa Billaba and Caleb Dume since many viewers would already be familiar with the latter from Rebels, where he is known as Kanan Jarrus. The two characters had brief non-speaking appearances in the final season of The Clone Wars before appearing in The Bad Batch, with Archie Panjabi cast as Billaba. The producers considered casting a new young voice actor as Caleb before Filoni reached out to Kanan actor Freddie Prinze Jr. about reprising his role. Rau felt Prinze was able to bring the right energy for the younger version of the character, as well as added emotion due to his connection to Kanan.[88] Later in the season, a young version of the Rebels character Hera Syndulla is introduced with Vanessa Marshall reprising her role.[56] This storyline includes some related characters returning from The Clone Wars or Rebels: Robin Atkin Downes as Hera's father Cham, Burton as Gobi Glie, Phil LaMarr as Orn Free Taa, and Filoni as Hera's droid Chopper who is credited as playing "Himself". Hera's mother Eleni, who was only mentioned in Rebels, is introduced in The Bad Batch voiced by Ferelith Young.[54][57] Also introduced in the season are Noshir Dalal as Vice Admiral Rampart and Rhea Perlman as Cid.[30]

In December 2022, Wanda Sykes was revealed to have been cast in the guest role of Phee Genoa for the second season.[38] The season also introduces Jimmi Simpson as Dr. Hemlock, who replaces Rampart as the primary antagonist of the series.[39] Reprising roles from The Clone Wars in the second season are Stanton as Mas Amedda,[31] Jennifer Hale as Riyo Chuchi,[32] LaMarr as Bail Organa,[31] and Jameelah McMillan as Halle Burtoni.[59] The season also features several actors reprising their roles from the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016): Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Tynnra Pamlo,[58] Andy de la Tour as Hurst Romodi, and Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic.[25] For the third season, Futterman reprises her The Clone Wars role as Asajj Ventress.[48] The producers wanted to cast child actors for the young Project Necromancer test subjects that are introduced in the season.[81] Ivan Sinitsin was cast as Jax, Olwyn M. Whelan as Eva, and Naiya Singh Padilla as Sami.[36] Shelby Young, who had several guest roles in the series,[34][35] provided vocals for the baby test subject Bayrn.[36]

Music

Kevin Kiner was confirmed to be composing the score for the series in January 2021, after previously doing so for The Clone Wars and Rebels.[89] As with the other animated Star Wars series, Kevin collaborated with his children Sean and Deana.[90] David Glen Russell and Peter Lam also provided additional music.[91][92] Sean and Deana Kiner are credited as co-composers with Kevin Kiner for the third season.[citation needed]

Kevin described the score for The Bad Batch as a continuation of his work on The Clone Wars, using a mix of electronic and orchestral music, and said it would continue to evolve just as the music of The Clone Wars evolved over its run. He took influence from the scores for The Guns of Navarone (1961) and The Dirty Dozen (1967) which both feature a similar band of heroes to the Bad Batch.[93]

Walt Disney Records released the first track from the series' score, titled "Enter the Bad Batch", as a digital single on May 13, 2021.[94] The label then released Kiner's score for the series in two-volume soundtrack albums for each season: music from the first eight episodes of the first season was released on June 25; from the final eight episodes of the first season on August 20;[95] from the first eight episodes of the second season on February 17, 2023;[96] from the final eight episodes of the second season on April 7;[97] from the first eight episodes of the third season on March 29, 2024;[98] and from the final seven episodes of the third season on May 3.[99]