Star Wars: The Bad Batch is an exciting new animated series set between the prequel and original trilogies, and it's been brought to life by people like Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett. Corbett serves as producer and head writer on the series, while Rau joins her as a producer. Both of them have been instrumental in fleshing out this period in the Star Wars timeline, but based on what they've been saying, it seems like they're only getting started.
Screen Rant recently spoke to Rau and Corbett in a paired interview about The Bad Batch, bringing back Cad Bane, and where the story goes from here regarding Omega and Clone Force 99.
The previous three animated series - Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance - all began with an endpoint in mind, an endpoint within the Star Wars timeline. Do you have an endpoint in mind for The Bad Batch?
Jennifer Corbett: We have an idea of where we would like to go with these characters and where we want to go with the show, but as is with every series, sometimes that shifts and changes as you dive into these episodes and get to know them more and develop who they are. We have an idea, and hopefully, we'll be able to see that through all the way to the end.
In the most recent episode, you had Cad Bane come in, which was especially awesome since it adapted that unmade Boba Fett duel from Clone Wars. So can you talk about why that was adapted and if there will be other scenes like that in the future?
Brad Rau: One thing we did - and we were so excited to bring Cad Bane back - once we knew we were doing that, we went back, on the production side, to design things that were created for the episode you’re referencing but were never realized. So we had an opportunity to go back into the designs and refine them a little bit; there is a spiritual feeling of what that was going to be, just by a look and feel for how his hat looks and how his outfit looks, but it’s all been changed just a little bit. The episodic director that worked on that is awesome, he’s such a great director - and he worked on Clone Wars with Dave Filoni for a long time. So when he was directing that episode, he wanted to shoot that scene himself. I’m like, “Alright, Stu, come on buddy, let’s do it. You gotta do it.” And he went in and intentionally vibed off of that footage that exists of Boba Fett versus Cad Bane. So it’s more of us as fans, behind the scenes, wanting to pay homage to that - that was never finished - more than anything else.
Spinning off of that, the original version had Boba Fett in it and this was replaced with Hunter. Is there potential to actually have Boba Fett come in?
Brad Rau: There’s definitely, I would say, in the timeline, that Boba Fett is alive during this time. I would say that, that’s true.
Fair answer. Now spinning off of that, as well, how do you decide which characters to bring in? Because you’ve had all these clones and then there was the origin story for Jabba’s rancor.
Jennifer Corbett: We always just want to make sure that whoever we’re bringing in into these stories is serving the Bad Batch’s story. So when you’re talking about the rise of the Empire, who is actually - in a character sense - thriving at that time? Out in the galaxy, who can the Batch cross paths with that actually makes sense? From Bib [Fortuna], you know - and Cid is a very shady character, so through the list of her contacts, it makes sense that she would have some kind of underworld connections. Right now is a time bounty hunters are thriving, I imagine, in the galaxy, so it was an interesting opportunity to be able to bring Fennec [Shand], who is new to the scene. And then when we bring in Cad Bane, just to see the difference in how the two of them operate - because, again, it made sense for the storyline with Omega and the Batch, and when we’re talking about bounty hunters, to organically bring those two in.
You mentioned Fennec Shand. There’s obviously a huge gap in her story between The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian. Will we see some of her backstory to understand what she’s been up to all this time?
Brad Rau: As a fan, I would love to see that. That would be amazing, because Fennec is a great character. We were so excited to have Ming-Na Wen come in to voice her in our show. She is such a great collaborator. We were talking about how she had done her hair in The Mandalorian and how we could do a version of that for the animated model in The Bad Batch. She’s just great to work with and explore her character in a younger time period than what we’ve seen and to see how sharp and clever she is, and that her lethality - there’s no holding back; she’s just blasting ahead. That was really, really fun to explore. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there - but yeah, as a fan, I’d love to see that.
The core mystery right now seems to be on Omega - the Kaminoans want her and everyone’s hunting her - but the core story is obviously still on the Bad Batch. So will the Omega storyline continue? Is that something that will drive the whole story forward, or will you focus more on the rise of the Empire and all that?
Jennifer Corbett: I think those are all active parts in the series, because as we focus on these different characters, you get the Empire’s side of things, Crosshair and the Kaminoans side from Nala Se and Lama Su, and kind of their different agendas. And then we’re always sort of focused on the Batch. But who Omega is and what she is matters to the Kaminoans, but with the Batch, she’s just a member of their team and part of their squad. It’s really about how they can train her, how this family develops and grows. It’s not so much about that or them, but that being said, her backstory does come into play for this season.
In addition to talking about the rise of the Empire - most of the shows and most of the movies have taken place in relatively established periods in the timeline, whereas this is more of a dark period no one really knows about. What do you want to explore yourselves - both of you - and particularly add to Star Wars canon?
Brad Rau: The rise of the Empire is very interesting because… what happened to the clones? What happens to the clones? Those are very interesting things to me, as a big fan. And we’ve talked a little bit about the design of the Empire and how it’s not suddenly overnight there’s stormtroopers and TIE fighters. Some things take time, so getting into that and seeing how things marinate and how things slowly evolve, to see how the clone regs that were brothers to the Bad Batch are now bleached, wiped, devoid of color and personality has been an interesting thing to see. To see how their gear works; it’s more Republic looking, but now it’s colored in a way that feels more insidious, more Imperial. The musical cues that come into play are in some cases intentionally half clone and half Imperial. How we play around with all of that stuff is really, really fun from a creative standpoint. I’ll just say that it is a story that we do enjoy exploring and we’re going to continue to dig into that as we go forward.
Jennifer Corbett: I’ll say that, other than obviously the clone story which I also enjoy, it’s showing the building blocks of the Empire’s takeover and how now it’s this transition period. And we’re going to see planets that are more aligned with them and are happy that the war is over, but also showing it through the eyes of the Batch and how suddenly as former Republic fighters, they have more in common now with defeated Separatists than they do with the Empire. Just kind of how the allegiances have shifted and how their eyes are more open to people on both sides of that previous war.
Going back to the Cad Bane scene - there was a moment that hinted that Hunter might’ve died. Is there potential or are you open to killing off a member of Clone Force 99?
Brad Rau: You’re going to make me sad! I mean, the interesting thing with these characters is that they’re familiar and yet we haven’t, as fans, seen that much about them. So this creates an opportunity for us to take characters and explore them further. I think where they may go is to be determined. As far as the perspective of the audience, it’s a powerful thing. Certainly you can tell a strong, dramatic story even if you know what a character’s endpoint is, but when you don’t know what a character’s endpoint is, it creates a lot of interesting opportunities.