'Star Wars: The Bad Batch' Will Get A Season 2 In 2022
With the season of the newest show set in the galaxy far, far away, The Bad Batch, set to come to an end shortly, a surprise announcement has been made today confirming a second season has been greenlit. Since it began, many fans have speculated as to whether or not a second season was necessary, but it looks like Clone Force 99 are going to be here for longer than most anticipated.
You can check out the announcement made on the Star War Instagram page below:
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For those who don't know, the latest show currently streaming on Disney+ focuses on Clone Force 99, who are a group of enhanced clones first introduced in Season 7 of the hugely popular The Clone Wars series. The beginning of the show runs parallel with the events of Revenge of the Sith, specifically at the point Palpatine declares Order 66 and the great Jedi extinction begins. However, whilst the clone army turn against their Jedi allies, Clone Force 99 are, seemingly, unaffected for the most part except for one of the group, and the series follows them as they adjust to life during the early days of the Empire's rise to power. The first episode was actually pretty cool, as it gave us animated versions of some of the scenes from the film, including General Grievous escaping from his ship and Palpatine declaring the formation of the Empire to the Senate.
We see the group basically on the run, accompanied by another special clone in the form of young Omega, and eventually work as a group for hire for the Trandoshan Cid (voiced by Rhea Perlman).
The main part making the show stand out above the others before it, is it's place within the overall timeline. Much like The Mandalorian, the show is set during a time previously unexplored onscreen in canon, right after the prequel trilogy. This means the show has been able to explore interesting aspects of Star Wars lore, such as the replacement of clones with stormtroopers. The latest episode has begun to explore this in great detail. It has also brought back some fan favorite characters from TCW, such as Rex and Tarkin, as well as Hera Syndulla from Rebels, with plenty of room for more to appear still.
Overall, the show has been fairly well received by fans of the franchise, so it does make sense for it to be renewed for a second season, but perhaps the most interesting prospect for a second season, is the fact it can continue to explore that space between the prequel and original trilogy. There are 19 years between the two and considering the show is centered around characters not exclusively part of the Skywalker Saga, there's plenty of content and source material for it to take from. Also, with the most recent episodes showing other clones question their loyalty to the Empire, and them being replaced with conscripts, it's completely possible we could see a whole story arc centering around a clone rebellion. I'm sure that's something many fans would love to see.
Who knows? We could even see various stories or characters from Legends make there way into canon. We'll just need to wait and see.
One person who is certainly happy at the prospect of carrying on the story is executive producer Dave Filoni himself. In response to the announcement, he said:
"The entire Lucasfilm Animation team and I would like to thank Disney Plus and our fans for the opportunity to continue telling the story of the Bad Batch."
For now, though, the two-part finale of season 1 is due to start tomorrow, so it's likely it will end with a cliffhanger teasing what could potentially come next.
What do you think about this news? Is a second season a good idea or should it have been a one and done deal? Be sure to let us know.
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