Star Wars: The Bad Batch was recently announced as a new series coming to Disney+ in 2021, serving as a sequel to the recently completed and ever-popular Clone Wars animated series. The series will follow Clone Force 99 aka, the Bad Batch, as they traverse the known galaxy in the Dark Times after the Clone Wars, when the Empire's might was at its peak. With that in mind, is it possible that there's a connection between Clone Force 99 and the Empire's Task Force 99 (SCAR Squadron), as seen in the Star Wars comic series from Marvel?
According to the announcement from Lucasfilm, the Bad Batch will have cut ties with the Empire in this new series, working as mercenaries while trying to make their way in the universe and seeking to find a new purpose. Each trooper has a specialized and unique skill beyond that of their standard clone brothers or even each other. Hunter, the squad's leader, has incredibly heightened senses, allowing for him to be quite an effective tracker. Crosshair is the marksman, able to knock out multiple targets with extreme accuracy and prejudice. Wrecker possesses greater than average strength, serving as the team's muscle, and Tech is naturally the squad's tech wizard. They also added ARC Trooper Echo to their ranks, after rescuing him in the final season of Clone Wars. Echo is a gifted strategist and also has cybernetic enhancements. Together, they are certainly a force to be reckoned with.
Related: Star Wars: What Happened To The Bad Batch After Clone Wars
It's very well possible that the military leaders of the newly formed Empire saw the success and effectiveness of Clone Force 99 and decided to keep the unit going. Enter Task Force 99, SCAR (Special Commando Advanced Recon) Squadron. As seen in the pages of the first volume of Star Wars (2015) from Marvel, SCAR Squadron was an elite unite of specialized stormtroopers sent by Darth Vader to hunt down Luke Skywalker and his rebel allies after the events of A New Hope. Led by the lightsaber-wielding Sgt. Kreel, SCAR Squadron consisted of several unique members such as:
*Aero, the squad's engineer
*Cav, specializing in close quarters combat
*Mic, SCAR's slicer and decrypter
*Misty, the deadly sniper (an accurate stormtrooper?!)
*Shrap, proficient in heavy weapons and explosives
*Zuke, the mortar-carrying muscle of the team
It's not out of the realm of possibility that the concept of a specialized unit of commandos stuck around into the days of the Empire, with the numeral identification number of "99" serving as some pretty good evidence. The Bad Batch could have very well been the inspiration for SCAR Squadron. Going further, given the time period of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, what if SCAR Squadron is tasked with hunting down and eliminating the Bad Batch? Who better to track down former special commandos than other special commandos? It would certainly be a pretty impressive dynamic to see clones take on stormtroopers regardless. However it shakes out, Star Wars: Bad Batch seems to be a promising series coming to the near future, especially with reference to the time period.