How The Bad Batch sets up Commander Wolffe's role in Star Wars Rebels

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Bad Batch Season 3, episodes 6 and 7.

Ever since Rex, Gregor, and Wolffe appeared on a modified AT-TE on the planet Seelos in Star Wars Rebels Season 2, there have been questions about how they ended up there, and what happened to them during and after Order 66.

The Clone Wars Season 7 fully reveals what happened to Rex during Order 66 and how his inhibitor chip was removed. As an ally of Clone Force 99, The Bad Batch series shows Rex helping other clones and creating a rebel network in the early years of the Empire.

The Bad Batch also shows what happened to Gregor. The Empire had him and other clones train TK troopers, the first generation of conscripted Imperial soldiers. Gregor wanted out of this and was extracted by Clone Force 99. Gregor then joined Rex's rebel network and helped other clones in need.

With Wolffe making his debut in The Bad Batch Season 3, episode 6, "Infiltration," and episode 7, "Extraction," the series is setting up his role in Rebels. Wolffe is the commander of the Imperial reinforcements sent in these episodes to capture Omega and stop the "insurgents" aiding her.

While Wolffe still serves the Empire, he does not blindly follow their orders. He openly disagrees with the violent methods of the brainwashed clone assassin, CX-2, and speaks out about multiple clones dying in what was supposed to just be an extraction mission.

When Wolffe confronts the "insurgents" he has been hunting, he realizes they are his clone brothers. This includes his old comrade Rex, who he believed was dead. Between Wolffe's own moral compass and what Rex says to him, Wolffe lets Omega, Rex, and the other clones go unharmed and insists on burying the rebel clones who died during the mission.

This rebelliousness, along with the reunion and kinship with Rex, sets up Wolffe's story in Rebels. The other piece that needs to be set up is Wolffe officially leaving the Empire, and getting his inhibitor chip removed. We also need an explanation of why he is deeply paranoid and traumatized in Rebels, far more than Rex or Gregor.

Unfortunately for Wolffe, he will likely be taken to Mount Tantiss and experimented on by Dr. Royce Hemock after refusing to follow orders. Hemlock may go beyond the usual experimentation and torture Wolffe in particularly inhumane ways as punishment for not capturing Omega, whose M-count is seemingly the key to making Project Necromancer work. What Hemlock does to Wolffe will likely be what leaves him so paranoid and traumatized, even years later in Rebels.

That paranoia and trauma leads him to initially distrusting the Ghost crew in Rebels and even contacting the Empire to inform them of the rebel presence on Seelos. As one of the last clones seen still serving the Empire, it makes sense that a part of Wolffe still feels compelled to trust the Empire years later.

Wolffe is one of the few clones guaranteed to survive The Bad Batch Season 3, and seeing him officially turning against the Empire should be satisfying. Still, the road ahead will still be difficult for him. Why only Wolffe, Rex, and Gregor end up on Seelos and why they abandon the larger rebellion against the Empire until Rebels will also be intriguing, yet potentially devastating to see unfold.