With May the Fourth nearly upon us, fans will soon be able to fully reimmerse themselves in the greater Star Wars universe with the debut of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, a brand new original animated series that will tell the tale of a team of elite clones that find themselves navigating their way through a new post-Order 66 galaxy.
Ahead of tomorrow's extended premiere, we were able to sit down with producer and head writer Jennifer Corbett and producer Brad Rau to talk about creating the upcoming series and get a few teases of what's to come.
Among the topics discussed were how the show may or may not tie into the live-action films and shows, Dee Bradley Baker's incredible performance, the new character Omega, how Fennec Shand and Saw Gerrera factor in, whether we could see a post-ROTJ animated series, and a whole lot more!
Check out our interview (which includes mild SPOILERS) with producer/head writer Jennifer Corbett and producer Brad Rau below!
ROHAN: With The Mandalorian seemingly incorporating elements from the animated shows, how does the collaboration between the live-action series and the animated shows typically work behind-the-scenes?
JENNIFER: "Well, I think the common factor is Dave Filoni, so as someone who worked on the Clone Wars with George Lucas, it’s been instrumental having him be a part of this show and be the creator because it’s still sort of his vision and a continuation of the Clone Wars. So, he’s kind of a mentor to Brad and I, and has been so helpful through this entire process and his feedback is making all the episodes just get better and better, but yeah, I think the best answer for that is Dave Filoni. "
ROHAN: Even though we already know the situation with the Empire will ultimately lead into A New Hope, what is it like for you as creators to explore this specific time frame?
BRAD: "It’s awesome, it’s so fun. As massive Star Wars fans, just being able to play around in this era, the rise of the Empire literally, the rise of the Empire right after Order 66 is really cool because there’s a lot to get into. There are a lot of new characters that we introduce in this show that are fun, we hope that will become fan-favorites at some point, but it’s a big galaxy. There’s a lot people kicking around at this point in the timeline, so it’s a lot of fun. "
ROHAN: Dee’s voicing all of the characters. How much fun is that to just watch? Does he record every character during separate sessions or is he going back and forth, cycling through the different parts?
BRAD: It’s so fun, it’s a great question, and Dee is incredible. He’s so great, he’s like a mentor to the cast as well, he’s such a great guy, but he literally will do - it was one of our first questions, like ‘Dee, are we doing Echo first and then we’re going to do Hunter’ and he just wanted to run through it like a run as though he were embodying the different characters as though he were however many characters would be in a scene playing off of himself.
It’s pretty crazy, it’s kind of like a magic trick seeing him do it. Anytime we do record him with other guest stars, for example, most people will stop and give him a look like ‘Wait, what? What’s going on here?’ - It’s pretty incredible.
ROHAN: Hunter and Omega seem to be developing a sort of surrogate father-daughter relationship that brought me back to what happened in The Mandalorian and in a film like Logan - what can you tease about her future?
JENNIFER: I think you can expect both Omega and the Bad Batch to be learning from each other because even though they’re all clones, they have very different perspectives, especially now in the galaxy the way it is, where they’re trying to sort of figure out where they fit in.
Them sorting of becoming this family dynamic and exploring that more and more because they just find that without the Republic to fall back on, the only people they can count on are each other and I’m glad you responded to Hunter and her because that’s really, it’s supposed to be a father-daughter, guardian-type feel, but they definitely grow a lot throughout the series.
ROHAN: Will the series eventually explore the transition from the clone troopers to the stormtroopers and maybe the psychological impact it has?
JENNIFER: "We definitely get into what the Empire’s reign, what that entails and how they view the clonetroopers and their worth and their sustainability. The Empire’s always thinking a few steps ahead, so we definitely get into how things start changing for the regular clonetroopers and the Batch, in that regard. "
ROHAN: It's already been announced that younger versions of both Fennec Shand and Saw Gerrara will appear at some point this season. What can you tell us about where we find them and their upcoming interactions with the Bad Batch?
BRAD: "Yeah, I mean, kind of like we’ve been talking about, this whole era is so interesting because there are so many characters that are around, including Fennec and Saw Gerrara, and it’s really interesting for us from a storytelling standpoint and design standpoint to tackle these kinds of characters and see what - like for Fennec, what is she like all these years younger than what we’re familiar with in The Mandalorian was really fun.
We got Ming-Na Wen to come and join our cast to voice her as well, which is so cool, she’s so awesome. Yeah, there’s probably a few other cameos you might see in the series, we won’t talk about it too much, but it is one of the fun things that we can run into a bunch of different characters on our show."
ROHAN: The animated shows - Clone Wars, Rebels, Bad Batch - have all explored the space betwen the prequels and the original trilogies, and with The Mandalorian, we're getting to see what happened after Return of the Jedi. Do you think there's room to explore what what happens in that post-ROTJ world in an animated space?
BRAD: "I mean, there’s room. *laughs* To answer the question, yes."
ROHAN: Fair point... I guess what I meant to ask was, is that something you'd like to explore?
BRAD: "Yeah, I mean, just as a fan, I just want to watch that. That sounds awesome, but yeah, we can’t talk too specifically about any plans that might be happening. I think it’s really cool right now that there’s so much exciting Star Wars in production, including we’re so lucky, like Jenn said, to work with Dave on this show and excited for fans to see it and as fans, we’re excited to see all the other things that everyone else is working on, so I would love to see that, that would be awesome."
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in “The Clone Wars”) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army—each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew.