Fans have been eagerly waiting for Star Wars: The Bad Batch to arrive. And finally, we’re just under a month away before the spinoff of Star Wars: The Clone Wars lands on Disney+.
Just last week, a new Bad Batch trailer was released, and we already have a few theories about what that teases for the rest of the series. But here’s the thing, we currently have no idea how long the series actually is. So far, Star Wars did announce that the series will premiere on May 4 (Star Wars Day) with a 70-minute episode, followed by a regular episode on May 7. But other than that, there’s been no indication of how many episodes this series will be.
Thankfully, there has been a little hint recently about the minimum length of the show. And that comes courtesy of composer Kevin Kiner, who’s currently working on the series. Here’s what he had to say on the Full of Sith podcast (via The Direct):
"I’m working on episode 14 now… I hope I can say that, I think I can. I just did a big action cue… it’s in a jungle scene… I’m having a great time with it."
The Bad Batch number of episodes
So, now we know that The Bad Batch will have at least 14 episodes — certainly making it a pretty lengthy series. (That is, compared to many of the other shows on streaming that opt for seasons hovering around the 10-episode mark.)
If we look back at The Clone Wars as a guidebook for The Bad Batch, then we might get a pretty good picture of how many episodes this new series could have. Back when the show was airing on Cartoon Network, it had a typical 22-episodes-per-season run (minus season 5’s 20 episodes). When it hit Netflix, that was reduced to 13 episodes. And it was slightly reduced again to 12 episodes when the final season streamed on Disney+.
With that in mind, 14 episodes at minimum is quite generous, though that could be the absolute peak if Lucasfilm wants to stay consistent with its previous streaming numbers. Otherwise, we may see up to a full 22-episode order if they really want to stick to their TV roots. Whatever this case, we’re looking at The Bad Batch lasting well into the summer if new episodes drop once a week. And we know that’ll make fans of Star Wars’ animated universe quite happy!
Now to find out if there’ll be a season 2…