The irregular team of clone troopers who were once nothing more than an idea from a cancelled show are now set to appear on screens once more in a second season of animated series: The Bad Batch.
After being resurrected from pre-rendered half-life following the return of The Clone Wars for one final season in 2020, Clone Force 99, also known as “The Bad Batch” were given a spin-off show all of their own which aired on Star Wars Day, May 4 of 2021. A second season of the show was soon ordered, but details were faint until now.
A recent report has revealed that an initial Spring release window has been pushed back to an unknown date later in the year. Given the very packed schedule that Disney+ is delivering, this comes as little surprise. Fans will remember that there are still two other Star Wars shows coming to the streaming service in 2022 with Obi-Wan Kenobi in May and Andor later in the year, as well as several Marvel shows and a handful of other Disney originals.
Along with the rescheduling comes details on the show itself. Composer for The Batch Batch Kevin Kiner, who also scored The Clone Wars, has stated that fan favourite Omega will be “a little bit older” in the second season, indicating that a time skip will occur between the first and second seasons.
Kiner also let slip that he was working on a piece that was to take place on the city planet or Coruscant, now the capital of the Galactic Empire. The veteran composer said that his aim was to channel the energy of the father of all Star Wars music, none other than John Williams himself. Kiner said that “we’ve seen Coruscant a lot of different times, but I’m thinking to myself ‘I’ve really got to channel John a little more…”
Kevin Kiner has worked alongside his sons and fellow composers Sean and Dean Kiner who also contributed to their fathers scores. The younger son Dean also claimed that season 2 would feature a larger roster of characters than did the first season, seemingly to imply that there would be some familiar faces appearing who were not present in the show’s original season.
The Bad Batch has plenty to go on. With Crosshair back in the hands of the Empire and a hostile galaxy hunting down Clone Force 99, the animated show has as much potential as any Star Wars project to make a name for itself in the galaxy far, far away.
For all things Bad Batch and Star Wars, head on over to Dork Side of the Force!