If you need some new Star Wars content on Disney+ to keep you busy while waiting for The Mandalorian and the other upcoming shows, you’re in luck! Disney+ has just debuted the new series Star Wars: The Bad Batch. It serves as a spinoff series and sequel to the critically-acclaimed and fan-favorite animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
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 that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew.
Shadow and Act was present for a recent press conference for the show featuring the voice of The Bad Batch members, Dee Bradley Baker, as well as producer and head writer Jennifer Corbett and producer Brad Rau.
The Bad Batch is one of the Star Wars series that focuses more on a reluctant group rather than a huge canon figure. Rau says that this is one aspect of the show that makes it great. “We love all of that stuff,” he said.” But it is really interesting to deal with this family dynamic. And to have the stories be emotionally charged and emotionally based gives the action a lot-a lot more texture, honestly. Because I mean, let’s face it, we’re blowing stuff up [laughs] we’re having fun doing that but, to have the emotional context of that is the challenge I think in any of these stories. And for us, I think it helps that we are coming into characters that are familiar and yet, we don’t know that much about [them]. And it gives us room to kind of play around with how those characters develop.”
Another cool thing about The Bad Batch is that it very much matches the aesthetic of its predecessor, The Clone Wars, keeping these common visual themes between the two series. “That’s very intentional,” said Rau. “As it’s, you know, The Bad Batch is a spiritual successor to The Clone Wars. So we wanted to honor the style and the legacy of that. That being said, the whole team at Lucasfilm and our partners at CGCG, we’ve just tightened everything up. So the fidelity is tighter. The style is tighter. The rigs are tighter. The way that it’s designed is still the legacy of The Clone Wars, but a little more detail [and] a little bit more focus. And the work we’re doing, for me, having worked on a lot of these shows with a lot of the same people, it’s just the best team and I think we’re doing our best work ever right now. It’s really fun.”
Baker also talked about playing all of The Bad Batch members, which he admits is relatively easy. “I feel like I know them, and it actually helps that they’re further differentiated vocally [and] in terms of their personality and their mood,” he said. “So it comes off looking more as a magic trick than it does maybe with the Clones. But it’s still a really fascinating process as a voice actor to jus have these scenes where I’m just talking to myself.”
“And it’s impressive to watch him do it in-in the room because when we first started, I thought he was gonna go a character at a time,” said Corbett. “And just watching him act out a scene with himself, with all of these Clones.”
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni, Athena Portillo, Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett, with Carrie Beck as co-executive producer and Josh Rimes as producer. Rau also serves as supervising director and Corbett is the head writer.
The series drops new episodes weekly on Disney+.
