With only two of the sixteen episodes still to air, Star Wars fans have been on tenterhooks over whether Aug 13th will mark the end of The Bad Batch, and whether we’ll be saying farewell to Clone Force 99 for good. Happily, Disney has decided to put us out of our misery and make the early announcement that the popular animated series will indeed be returning next year for a whole new round of adventures.
In a statement, executive producer Dave Filoni said “The entire Lucasfilm Animation team and I would like to thank Disney + and our fans for the opportunity to continue telling the story of the Bad Batch.”
While it’s presented as somewhat of a surprise, we can only imagine this was the plan all along, as the show has a noticeably slow pace at odds with its subject matter, in particular, the rapidly changing galaxy under the newly appointed Empire. Other fascinating plot threads that will undoubtedly have largescale ramifications on future Star Wars storytelling include the importance of the Bad Batch’s young ward Omega and her brother ‘Alpha’, better known as Boba Fett, and the growing division amongst the clone army ranks as they struggle with moral uncertainty under the rule of their new leaders. These two utterly compelling arcs have progressed steadily throughout Season 1, interspersed with the tried-and-tested (but admittedly in need of a shake-up) ‘mission of the week’ formula, but both are far bigger than a single season could ever have contained. Let’s hope that The Bad Batch follows the precedent set by The Clone Wars and Rebels before it and allows its Season 2 (and beyond) episodes to lean further into the larger unfolding narratives vs standalone tales.
While there’s no set date in 2022 for Season 2, we’d most likely expect another May debut.
Find the STARBURST review of the latest Bad Batch episode here, and for a full run-down on what other Star Wars projects are heading to our screens soon, read our breakdown here.
