Star Wars: Are the Bad Batch clones?

Many Star Wars fans are probably missing Star Wars: The Clone Wars right about now. But the good news is the Clone Wars story has not come to a complete end just yet.

On May 4, Star Wars: The Bad Batch is set to premiere — and it’s being listed as a direct spinoff to The Clone Wars! (Some are even joking that The Bad Batch is the unofficial eighth season of The Clone Wars, but we digress!)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series that this stems from, we see the troop known as the Bad Batch appear in a string of episodes in the final season. The troop is composed of five members: Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair and Echo. And what we do know from the series is that we’ll see them put up a good fight when it comes to the new Imperial regime. But if you’re new, you may be wondering, who are these people, and are they actually clones?

Why are they called the Bad Batch?

So many questions arise about this group. But in a nutshell, yes, the Bad Batch are clones, and they get their name because they’re not like the other clones. Typically, all the clones bear the same resemblance to Jango Fett and have the same set of skills. But when it comes to the Bad Batch (aka Clone Force 99), they were altered to be different from the rest.

Through genetic manipulation, the team of five members was created with “desirable mutations” that make them different from all the others. The mutations also gave them unique, individual appearances, hence why they don’t look like the rest of the clones — and why they don’t look like each other either. (Think fraternal twins.)

The team ended up dubbing themselves “the Bad Batch” because of their differences. Perhaps they are the bad batch out of all clones, but their invaluable set of skills probably proves otherwise.

If you want to brush up on what to watch to prepare for The Bad Batch, we recommend you check out our featured story linked below!