The Bad Batch deserves better than the Star Wars: Resistance treatment

The closer we get to the premiere of The Bad Batch Season 2, the more I worry we’ll see the same premature end to this series that we got with Star Wars Resistance.

Resistance infamously ended abruptly after just two seasons, and though there were many factors that played into this tragedy — many of which thankfully might not apply to The Bad Batch — it’s still an animated show. And it’s therefore at much higher risk of being dropped in favor of other “more popular” Star Wars projects.

Resistance fell prey to a critical misfire: Its story was sandwiched between sequel trilogy films, and when it bumped up against The Rise of Skywalker, there wasn’t much else that could be done with the story after the season ended. So the show, like that point in the timeline, simply stopped.

That, at the very least, won’t happen with The Bad Batch. There are many years between this show and the next one in the timeline (Obi-Wan Kenobi), and there’s very low risk of it coming up against something that will make continuing the story nearly impossible.

But the danger of live-action overpowering the series remains. Episodes of Season 2 of The Bad Batch and Season 3 of The Mandalorian will likely overlap — not just that they’ll drop on Disney+ the same week, but also that they’ll premiere at the same time on the same day (Wednesdays at 12 a.m. PT).

Will viewers choose between one or the other? Probably not — fans who want to watch both will make the time to watch both. That’s not the biggest danger. The biggest risk is that The Mandalorian will dominate every post-show conversation, and The Bad Batch won’t get talked about or revisited. It won’t have a loud enough following to sustain it.

This show deserves so much better than a two-season run. Like past animated Star Wars series, it might take until the second season or so to really pick up speed.

Let’s hope it doesn’t end before it gets the chance to truly shine.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 premieres January 4, 2023 exclusively on Disney+.

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