Today is Star Wars Day (May 4). And Disney+ has a new exclusive animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch available for fans worldwide.
First introduced in the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the Bad Batch consists of five clone commandos – team leader Hunter, muscleman Wrecker, tech-whiz Tech, sniper Crosshair and tactician Echo.
Officially known as Clone Force 99, the Bad Batch is the result of Kaminoan experiments to create a specialist unit of clone commandos. Thus, they do not follow orders like other Clone Troopers, which might be a problem when Order 66 was issued.
Interestingly, all five characters of The Bad Batch are voiced by the same actor Dee Bradley Baker. A veteran voice actor who has been involved in The Clone War animated series.
During a global virtual press conference of The Bad Batch, Mr Baker said that it was actually much easier to voice The Bad Batch than the Clone Wars. He said: “They (Bad Batch characters) are further differentiated vocally and also in terms of their personalities and their moods.”
This deep differentiation “oddly makes it a little but easier to jump from character to character to character,” Mr Baker said.
Also speaking at the press conference, The Bad Batch’s head writer and executive producer Ms Jennifer Corbett said it was impressive to watch Mr Baker voicing the characters in the studio.
Ms Corbett said: “I thought he was going to go a character at a time… But (he just) acted out a scene with himself with all of these clone (characters)… There’s no pause. He just goes right into it!”
The time period of The Bad Batch is what makes Ms Corbett excited about the new series. “It was interesting to just sort of talk about the transition from the Republic to the Empire and what that looks like, because it’s not what we saw in the original trilogy, where it’s the dominance of the Empire,” she explained.
Similarly, this time period excites Mr Brad Rau, the series’ executive producer and supervising director. During the press conference, he said: “As a fan, I’m just so excited to see (what happens), because we haven’t seen that much about the rise of the Empire.”
Ms Corbett added: “The question became – “What happens after the war is over? What happens to clones who all they know is being soldiers?”
She said this is especially so for the Bad Batch – whom Ms Corbett refers to as an “odd-ball group of characters” – who does things differently and how they will fit in once the Republic becomes the Empire.
The Bad Batch will see the introduction of a mysterious kid called Omega, which was revealed in the trailer.
When asked if Omega is integral to the series’ story during the press conference, Mr Rau answered with a laugh: “Yes. She is. Definitely.”
Of course, Mr Rau is not going to reveal much. But he did say it will be interesting to see how these best-of-the-best soldiers, who are suddenly fishes out of water in a changing galaxy, have this kid that they have to help and deal with.
To find out how the Bad Batch and Omega will evolve, remember to tune in to Star Wars: The Bad Batch. It starts streaming today exclusively on Disney+ (subscription of $11.98 per month).
