Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2023)

Season 3 (2024)

Starring

• Dee Bradley Baker as the Bad Batch:
  Also known as Clone Force 99, the Bad Batch are a unique squad of clone troopers with genetic mutations.^[8] Star Wars creator George Lucas wanted them to each have special abilities that made them different from other clones, but he did not want them to be superheroes.^[9] The Bad Batch includes: Hunter, the leader of the team who has enhanced senses and is described as a "master tracker"; Wrecker, who has enhanced muscles and a reinforced skeleton making him very strong; Crosshair, a skilled sniper; Tech, a genius who specializes in technology; and Echo, a former regular clone or "reg" who was turned into a cyborg through horrific experimentation and can now interface with computer systems.^[10] Despite being clones, Baker made sure the team had noticeable differences in each voice, such as Tech's precision and Crosshair sounding like a "coiled snake".^[11]
  • As he did for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Baker also voices most of the other clones in the series,^[11] including: Grey, the captain under Jedi Master Depa Billaba during Order 66;^[12] Cut Lawquane, a Clone Wars deserter who goes into hiding with his family;^[13] Rex, a former captain who was believed killed at the end of the Clone Wars and now works in secret to help other clones and resist the Empire;^[14][15] Howzer, a captain on Ryloth who supports local freedom fighters over the Empire;^[16] Gregor, a commando working with Rex;^[17] Wilco, a captain stationed on Serenno who is murdered by Vice Admiral Rampart for refusing to falsify a report;^[18] Cody, a commander who deserts after starting to question the Empire during a mission with Crosshair;^[19] Cade and Slip, clones who are killed by Rampart as part of a conspiracy to cover-up the destruction of Tipoca City;^[20] Scorch, a commando who leads the Advanced Science Division's forces;^[21] Mayday, the commander of a desolate outpost on Barton IV whose death is a catalyst for Crosshair turning on the Empire;^[22] Fireball and Nemec, members of Rex's group of rogue clones;^[23] the Clone X assassins;^[24] and Wolffe, a commander sent to capture Omega who is talked down by Rex.^[25] Baker added subtle differences to the voice of each clone.^[11]
  • Baker reprised the role of Barton Coburn, an Imperial admiral who attends Tarkin's summit, from The Clone Wars.^[26] He also provided the sounds for Batcher, a lurca hound that Omega befriends.^[27]
• Michelle Ang as Omega:
  A young female clone who joins the Bad Batch.^[28] She is an unmodified replication of Jango Fett, so she ages normally unlike the Bad Batch and other clones who age at twice the normal speed. This means Omega is technically older than most of the other clones, despite appearing to be much younger.^[29] Her name is a reference to the first unmodified clone of Jango Fett, "Alpha", who is better known as Jango's son Boba.^[2] To create Omega's voice, Ang used her own New Zealand accent but altered her pitch and state of mind to give the character a "youthfulness". Ang also took inspiration from watching her young son have new experiences.^[30]

Recurring

Guests

Background

After Disney acquired Lucasfilm in October 2012, the animated Star Wars television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars was canceled in March 2013.^[62] A new animated series, Star Wars Rebels, was prioritized.^[63] Lucasfilm said some unfinished episodes of The Clone Wars would still be released as "bonus content",^[62] 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 original Star Wars creator George Lucas.^[9] The four episodes were shown, as unfinished story reels, at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in April 2015.^[64] By September 2016, The Clone Wars and Rebels supervising director Dave Filoni had stepped back from that position on the latter series so he could focus on writing it as well as on developing future series with Lucasfilm Animation.^[65] In July 2018, Filoni announced that a final season of The Clone Wars was being produced, for release on the new streaming service Disney+ in 2020.^[66] The four unfinished Bad Batch episodes were completed for the final season with some small changes.^[9]

Development

Disney+ ordered Star Wars: The Bad Batch, a spin-off from the final season of The Clone Wars, in July 2020. The series was set to follow the Bad Batch in the aftermath of the Clone Wars. The announcement described the series as 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 "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.^[67] In August 2021, before the first-season finale was released, the series was renewed for a second season.^[68] In April 2023, during Star Wars Celebration London, a third and final season of The Bad Batch was announced.^[69] 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".^[46]

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.^[8][14] Baker replaced New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, who portrayed the clones—as well as the bounty hunter Jango Fett who the clones are based on—in the Star Wars prequel films.^[70] Also starring in The Bad Batch is Michelle Ang as Omega, a young female clone of Jango Fett.^[28] 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 and the COVID-19 pandemic prevented her from returning to record with Baker for many subsequent episodes. Ang instead recorded much of her dialogue remotely over video calls.^[30]

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).^[37] 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.^[57] Mox is accompanied by two even younger clones, Deke and Stak, who are voiced by Logan's fellow New Zealand actor Julian Dennison.^[58][71]

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.^[48] The trailer also revealed that Stephen Stanton and Andrew Kishino were reprising their respective The Clone Wars roles as Tarkin and Saw Gerrera.^[14][42] Other actors who reprised roles from The Clone Wars in the first season include Ben Diskin as AZI-3;^[31] Matthew Wood as the battle droids;^[39] Bob Bergen as Lama Su;^[31] Gwendoline Yeo as Nala Se;^[31] Nika Futterman, Kath Soucie, and Cara Pifko as the family of clone deserter Cut Lawquane;^[44] Brigitte Kali and Elizabeth Rodriguez as the Martez sisters;^[49] Corey Burton as Cad Bane and Seth Green as Bane's droid Todo 360;^[50] and Tom Kane, who narrated the opening of each The Clone Wars episode, provided similar narration for The Bad Batch's premiere episode.^[43]

Reprising roles from the Star Wars films in the first season are Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine,^[41] Wood as Bib Fortuna,^[40] and Rena Owen as Taun We.^[52] 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.^[72] Later in the season, a young version of the Rebels character Hera Syndulla is introduced with Vanessa Marshall reprising her role.^[53] This storyline includes some related characters returning from The Clone Wars and/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.^[51][54] Also introduced in the season are Noshir Dalal as Vice Admiral Rampart and Rhea Perlman as Cid.^[31]

In December 2022, Wanda Sykes was revealed to have been cast in the guest role of Phee Genoa for the second season.^[35] The season also introduces Jimmi Simpson as Dr. Hemlock, who replaces Rampart as the primary antagonist of the series.^[36] Reprising roles from The Clone Wars in the second season are Stanton as Mas Amedda,^[32] Jennifer Hale as Riyo Chuchi,^[33] LaMarr as Bail Organa,^[32] and Jameelah McMillan as Halle Burtoni.^[56] 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,^[55] Andy de la Tour as Hurst Romodi, and Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic.^[26] For the third season, Futterman reprises her The Clone Wars role as Asajj Ventress.^[45]

Music

Kevin Kiner was confirmed to be scoring the series in January 2021, after previously scoring The Clone Wars and Rebels.^[73] He wrote the Bad Batch Theme for the final season of The Clone Wars,^[74] and described his score for The Bad Batch as an evolution from its predecessor with a mix of electronic and orchestral elements. Kiner was inspired by the soundtracks of The Guns of Navarone (1961) and The Dirty Dozen (1967), which both feature a band of characters similar to The Bad Batch.^[73]

Kiner's score for the first season was released digitally by Walt Disney Records in two volumes: music from the first eight episodes was released on June 25, 2021, and music from the last eight episodes was released on August 20. A track from the first season, titled "Enter the Bad Batch", was released digitally as a single on May 13.^[75] The score for the second season of The Bad Batch was released on a similar schedule to the soundtrack release for the first season: music from the first eight episodes was released digitally on February 17, 2023,^[76] and music from the final eight episodes was released on April 7, 2023.^[77] The score for the third and final season is expected to be released in two volumes: music from the first eight episodes was released digitally on March 29, 2024; music from the final seven episodes is expected to be released sometime in May.^[78]

Audience viewership

According to Whip Media's viewership tracking app TV Time, Star Wars: The Bad Batch was the most anticipated new television series, during the month of May 2021,^[83] and was the 4th most anticipated returning television series, during the month of September 2022.^[84] According to Nielsen, Star Wars: The Bad Batch was the 7th most streamed original series across all platforms, during the week of May 3, 2021, to May 9, 2021.^[85][86]

According to Whip Media's viewership tracking app TV Time, Star Wars: The Bad Batch was the 3rd most streamed original series across all platforms during the week of January 8, 2023,^[87] during the week of January 15, 2023,^[88] during the week of January 22, 2023,^[89] during the week of January 29, 2023,^[90] and during the week of February 5, 2023,^[91] the 5th during the week of February 12, 2023,^[92] and during the week of February 19, 2023,^[93] the 6th during the week of February 26, 2023,^[94] the 7th during the week of March 5, 2023,^[95] the 6th during the week of March 12, 2023,^[96] the 7th during the week of March 19, 2023,^[97] the 6th during the week of March 26, 2023,^[98] and the 5th during the week of April 2, 2023.^[99]

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 7.3/10, based on 92 reviews for the first season. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Bad Batch's beautifully animated adventure may be too lore heavy for casual viewers, but fans will enjoy diving deeper into this dastardly cast of characters."^[100] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 67 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[101] The second season has an 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.2/10, based on 21 reviews. The website's critic consensus reads: "The second bundle of The Bad Batch retains all the same virtues and vices as the first: a slick Star Wars adventure geared toward diehard fans at the expense of more casual viewers."^[102] The third season currently holds an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 13 reviews. The website's critic consensus reads: "Mobilizing for one last hurrah with plenty of easter eggs and rousing action still left in its arsenal, The Bad Batch ends on a good note."^[103] On Metacritic, the third season currently has a score of 68 out of 100, based on 4 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[104]

Joel Keller of Decider called the series a "worthy" spinoff of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and praised the introduction of Omega as a female main character, writing, "Star Wars: The Bad Batch should satisfy Clone Wars fans and give completist fans of the franchise a chance to see what happened at the very beginning of the Empire."^[105] Joshua Rivera of Polygon gave the show a positive review and stated, "The prequels are just as full of rich potential as the original Star Wars trilogy, and The Bad Batch, like The Clone Wars before it, is set to do a lot of slow, careful work to tease out that potential."^[106] Wenlei Ma of News.com.au gave the show a positive review and stated, "The Bad Batch is catnip for the dedicated Star Wars fans. It's an animated action-adventure series with thrills, relatable characters on the right side of the war, blaster guns and enough lore and easter eggs to invoke a few excited squeals."^[107]

Vincent Schilling of Indian Country Today gave the show 8.5 out of 10 stars and stated, "I'm not a superfan of Star Wars animated series, but I am impressed with this one, a team of certifiable rejects, each with their own skillset, is a winning formula for me – excellent actually."^[108] Jesse Schdeen of IGN gave the premiere episode an 8 out of 10 rating, stating that the series is "a worthy successor to The Clone Wars, so much so that it could easily be rebranded as an eighth season" and that "it uses a loose end from that show to build a brand new story about the plight of clones after the war's end, and it's one that immediately resonates". He also added that the show "captures a lot of what made The Clone Wars so great (including the slick animation style and the vocal talents of Baker), but it doesn't entirely escape that show's flaws, either".^[109] Julian Lytle of idobi.com gave the show 8 out of 10 stars and stated, "The Bad Batch feels familiar but also starts a new journey with new characters in a cool setting. I can't wait to see what happens with this group in the Empire."^[110] Marty Brown of Common Sense Media gave the show 4 out of 5 stars and a '10+' age rating, stating, "This series delivers on precisely what fans would expect from a Star Wars story: world building, unique new characters, and big action sequences with a moral allegory at the center."^[111]

Jonathan Roberts of The New Paper gave the show 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "The Bad Batch is good to dip into, but it can make for a bad binge."^[112] Niv M. Sultan of Slant Magazine rated the series 1.5 out of 4 stars and stated, "The show's attempt to individualize its protagonists largely reduces them to predictable, banal archetypes."^[113]

Kimberly Terasaki of The Mary Sue expressed concerns over the series "whitewashing" the clone troopers, writing that "the designs of some characters seemed to make many of them lighter-skinned and/or with more European features... Long story short: clones of a character played by a Māori man had been white-washed." This concern was also noticed by fans, spawning a Twitter page, an Instagram page, and a Change.org petition.^[114] In response to these concerns, supervising director Brad Rau said the animation team had gone back through the produced episode and adjusted the skin tones of the clones to be closer to that of film actor Temuera Morrison.^[115]

The show has also received praise for its representation of people with disabilities. Emily Smith of Radio Times noted that prior to The Bad Batch, most disabilities in the Star Wars universe were associated with negativity, such as with antagonists Darth Vader and Darth Maul, who became amputees after combat. Other characters, like Luke Skywalker and Kanan Jarrus, were negatively affected after being injured by antagonists. In contrast, the original four Bad Batch characters were born with disabilities, which Smith said frees their disability from any connotation.^[116] Joshua Patton of CBR complimented the show for portraying a kid-friendly conversation about neurodivergency, highlighting a quote from Tech in season two, episode nine: "I may process moments and thoughts differently, but that does not mean that I feel any less than you".^[117]

Accolades

The first season is one of 200 television series that received the ReFrame Stamp for the years 2021 to 2022. The stamp is awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame and industry database IMDbPro for film and television projects that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring, with stamps being awarded to projects that hire female-identifying people, especially women of color, in four out of eight key roles for their production.^[118]