Here's everything you need to know about the stars of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and the adventures they're likely to have in the Dark Times. Star Wars is quickly becoming the cornerstone of the Disney+ streaming service, with a string of animated and live-action series. The Mandalorian became the most in-demand digital original in December 2019, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 met with popular and critical acclaim.
Lucasfilm Animation has confirmed a Clone Wars spinoff, expected to stream on Disney+ in 2021. This will star Clone Force 99, aka the Bad Batch, a group of defective clones who were found to have specific traits and abilities deemed "desirable" by the Jedi and the Republic military. They tended to serve as an elite black ops unit, assigned the highest-risk missions.
The Bad Batch made their debut in Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, introduced as an elite special ops team. They successfully infiltrated a Separatist stronghold on Anaxes and subsequently working with Anakin Skywalker to rescue a captured Clone Trooper, Echo. But just who are these unusual Clone Troopers?
The Bad Batch Team Explained
The Grand Army of the Republic was based on Jango Fett, but the Kaminoans modified his genetic code to accelerate a clone's aging and lessen Fett's more willful attributes. These modifications introduced mutations, which meant occasionally a Clone Trooper was created who was deemed to be defective. One of the first of these called himself 99, a Clone Trooper who served as a janitor but nevertheless proved himself as brave as his brothers. Clone Trooper 99's mutations made him useless to the Republic, but some other mutant clones were far more valuable. They became the Bad Batch, otherwise known as Clone Force 99 in honor of their fallen brother. The members are:
- Hunter, the Bad Batch's leader, who possesses heightened senses
- Wrecker, a physical powerhouse with superhuman strength
- Crosshair, a gifted marksman
- Tech, a genius with an instinctive grasp of technology
There's a sense in which the Bad Batch are the superheroes of the Grand Army, each possessing special powers and abilities. Think of Hunter as a Wolverine analogue, Wrecker as the Hulk, Crosshair as Hawkeye, and Tech as a standard comic book genius like Tony Stark or Mr. Fantastic. The team welcomed Echo into their ranks, and he added a new level of strategic insight as well; he's also now a cyborg, continuing the comic book-style theme.
The Bad Batch Is Set In Star Wars' Dark Times
Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 ran right up to the end of the Clone Wars, and a little beyond. When the series ended, the Jedi Order had been slaughtered by the Clone Army in accordance with Order 66. The last surviving Jedi were on the run, while Anakin Skywalker had been transformed into Darth Vader. The Galactic Republic had fallen, transformed into the Empire. This was the beginning of the "Dark Times," an age without hope, where Emperor Palpatine ruled supreme. Surprisingly, this period of time has only been explored a little so far, and then only in comics, novels, and games - most notably the spectacular Jedi: Fallen Order.
According to Disney, The Bad Batch will be set early on in the Dark Times, with the Bad Batch cut loose from the Empire and attempting to make ends meet as a band of mercenaries. The galaxy would still be in chaos after the end of the Clone Wars, with a number of criminal empires - including the Hutts and Crimson Dawn - rising to power. The Empire was expanding its rule aggressively, using its military might to quench any potential rebellions, and no organized resistance yet existed. According to Star Wars Rebels, the Empire swiftly decided to wind down the Clone Army and replace it with Stormtroopers, presumably explaining why the Bad Batch is no longer affiliated with the government. Given these clones were defective, it's possible they didn't obey the control chips that forced their brothers to kill the Jedi, and that could lead to a very strained relationship between Clone Force 99 and the Empire.