Where does The Bad Batch fit in the Star Wars movie timeline?

Star Wars: The Bad Batch has finally premiered, and fittingly on Star Wars Day (“May the Fourth”) to top it all off.

Many know that this is a spinoff of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but instead of focusing on Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, it focuses on… the Bad Batch! Yes, these are the clone troopers we first met in season 7 of The Clone Wars. And we learned that they are a group of genetically modified clones who had been created and eventually became known as Clone Force 99, aka, the Bad Batch.

Many also know that The Clone Wars takes place just between Episodes II and III. And the final season had events that occurred both during Episode III as well as just after it. So knowing that, where does the spinoff The Bad Batch fit on the Star Wars movie timeline?

When does The Bad Batch take place?

The Bad Batch takes place just after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and well before Episode IV: A New Hope. We saw Episode III signal the fall of the Jedi when Emperor Palpatine called for Order 66 to be executed. And additionally, we also saw Order 66 be called in The Clone Wars as well.

Now, the premise behind The Bad Batch asks the question: what happened to the clones just after Order 66? So far, we’ve seen in Episode III what happened to cause the Jedi to fall. And in Episode IV, we saw what was going on just before the fall of the Empire. But in The Bad Batch, we’ll be seeing what the galaxy was like as they transition from being a Republic to an Empire.

In the Star Wars canon, we haven’t seen too much of the early days of the Empire on screen. So it will be quite interesting to see just how the Empire eliminated the remnants of the Republic to become the new government. And, of course, it’ll be even more interesting to see that through the eyes of the Bad Batch, who must decide where their allegiance lies now that the battle between the Republic and Separatists are over.

New episodes of The Bad Batch drop Fridays on Disney+. And keep up with Dork Side of the Force for more.