Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 could include a tragic death similar to something teased but ultimately abandoned in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The Star Wars sequel trilogy’s finale came close to killing off the beloved wookiee hero Chewbacca but, given the film’s attempts to please all viewers, couldn’t commit to such a major character death. The Bad Batch will reintroduce the wookiee Jedi Gungi, providing the series with a similar opportunity.
Gungi debuted in Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5 as a Jedi youngling acquiring a Kyber crystal and using it to construct a unique lightsaber. Gungi is set to return to the Star Wars franchise in The Bad Batch season 2, but given his status as a living padawan, he may not survive the reign of the Empire. A young wookiee padawan like Gungi being killed off, especially in an animated series, seems unlikely, but if The Bad Batch takes this dark route, the Star Wars canon timeline will, in a way, make up for its failure to follow through on killing off Chewbacca, something that the Star Wars Legends timeline is infamous for.
Why Gungi Could Die In The Bad Batch Season 2
The most obvious reason why Gungi may not survive The Bad Batch season 2 is that he is a member of the Jedi Order (though not a Jedi Knight) during the height of the Galactic Empire’s power. Gungi has no appearances or mentions in the Star Wars original trilogy era and the Jedi are said to be all but extinct, aside from a few notable exceptions. There is a possibility, however, that Gungi can survive the Empire’s reign without becoming yet another Jedi Purge survivor. If Gungi abandons his lightsaber, the Jedi ways, and his use of the Force, he could simply lie low until the Galactic Empire falls and the Jedi are no longer oppressed.
Chewbacca’s Death In Star Wars Legends Explained
Wookiee deaths are somewhat rare in the Star Wars franchise, both due to their popularity and their extremely formidable strength and fighting skills. In the Legends timeline, which was the official Star Wars continuity before 2014, the most famous wookiee death was that of Chewbacca himself. Legends-era content needed the approval of George Lucas himself, and the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order creative team was given permission to kill off Chewbacca. Although he did not propose the idea, R. A. Salvatore gave the beloved Chewbacca a heroic demise in 1999’s The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime, garnering strong reactions from Star Wars fans and news outlets alike.
On a rescue mission to Sernpidal, Chewbacca, Han Solo, and Anakin Solo saved as many of the world’s population as they could as Dobido (one of the world’s moons) was sent on a collision course towards Sernpidal by the Yuuzhan Vong. Chewbacca managed to save many Sernpidalians and Han’s youngest child, but he and many of the planet’s near-human inhabitants perished in the collision. While Chewbacca’s tragic yet heroic death is now part of an alternate timeline, Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 can give the ongoing Star Wars canon a comparable demise for the padawan Gungi, making up for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s hesitance.