Stars Wars: The Bad Batch, the latest animated series now streaming on Disney+, centers around the adventures of Clone Force 99. I had a chance to attend a discussion with the director and head writer of Star Wars: The Bad Batch Brad Rau, Jennifer Corbett, and voice actor Dee Bradley Baker moderated by Ash Crossan from Entertainment Tonight. The group discussed what it was like bringing Star Wars: The Bad Batch to Disney+.
When asked about what’s happening in the galaxy when we pick up this show and the challenges that our Bad Batchers are gonna face Jennifer responded, “This time period is one of the reasons I got so excited about this show, other than this you know, oddball group of characters. But I just found it intriguing and engaging to watch a series where you know, we’ve seen the Clone Wars where it’s the height of-of the Clone Troopers doing what they’re meant to do, and what they were created for. And you know, the question became, “What happens after the war is over? What happens to clones who all they know, um, is being soldiers?” Especially for the Bad Batch who do things differently as it is with the Republic and how they fit in once it becomes the Empire. Because obviously, two very different regimes, and you know, how they react to this new environment and the new way of doing things and new way of following rules. Which again, isn’t their their favorite thing to do. But it was interesting to just sort of talk about the transition from the Republic to the Empire and what that looks like, because it’s not-it’s not what we saw in the original trilogy, where it’s the dominance of the Empire. It’s kind of like the early stages, and I found it kind of interesting to show planets and places that were happy that the war is over, and they don’t really understand the implications of what an Empire actually means. And it’s kind of just laying the groundwork for what-what everyone knows the Empire to be later on.
The Batch Batch differs so much from the Clones Wars due to the rule the structure of the teams. When asked about how they would handle the shocking transition from going from the Republic to the Empire Dee replied, “It becomes a suddenly much more rule-based power structure of the galaxy. Of the universe. And that the Bad Batch are not so much a rule-based unit. They’re very much a team, but they’re not like the Clones are, where it’s more of a top down command structure. And it’s very interesting to place them in the middle of this transformational moment and to see how that plays out.
Voice Actor Dee Bradley Baker has done some incredible work on the Clones Wars and is now bringing his talents to The Bad Batch. When asked about how he chose to approach this new series Dee said, “Clone Force 99 is kind of another step beyond what I’ve been asked to do in the Clone Wars series. The Clones are-the tricky part for them, is that the differentiation is much tighter between characters. Although it has to be decisive. It has to be clear. The Bad Batch are actually much further apart from each other, which oddly makes it a little bit easier to jump from character to character to character. I mean, for me it feels like I’m jumping from rock to rock on a stream. I can see the rock. The writing is clear. And that’s what I jump to. Is that character. And it’s like, I can see them. I feel like I know them, and it actually [LAUGH] it actually helps that they’re-they’re further differentiated in vocally, and also in terms of their personality and their mood, shall we say? Um, so it comes off looking more as a magic trick [LAUGH] then it does maybe with the Clones, but it’s a-but the [LAUGH] but its still-it’s a still a really fascinating process as a voice actor to just, uh, you know, have-have these scenes where I’m just-I’m just talking to myself.
While previous Star Wars animated series felt different in their personal visual style, Star Wars: The Bad Batch is within the same universe as its predecessor The Clone Wars. When asked why the team felt it was so important to maintain that sense of visual continuity between those two series Brad replied, “That’s very intentional. That’s so cool that you picked up on that. Um, as it’s, you know, it’s a spiritual-The Bad Batch is a spiritual successor to Clone War. So we wanted to honor the style and the legacy of that. That being said, the whole team At Lucasfilm and-and our partners at CGCG, we’ve just tightened everything up. So the fidelity is tighter. The style is tighter. The rigs are tighter. The way that it’s designed is still the legacy of The Clone Wars, but a-um, a little more detail. Little bit more focus. And the work we’re-you know, we’re doing, you know, for me, having worked on a lot of these shows, with a lot of the same people internally. It’s just the best team and I think we’re doing our best work ever right now. Its’ really fun.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is currently streaming on Disney+ and is a definite must see show for Star Wars fans and more!
