Star Wars: The Bad Batch

The Star Wars franchise has had varying degrees of success with its recent outings. These have ranged from the sensational highs of The Force Awakens and The Mandalorian to the fiercely divisive The Last Jedi and the banal mediocrity of Solo. And now with the release of the highly anticipated series The Bad Batch upon us, fans will be wondering which end of the scale this latest addition will land.

After the first two episodes, the answer is somewhere in the middle. While there’s plenty of light-hearted action that looks to connect the dots between the mainline films and spin-ofs, the introduction is a standard by-the-numbers affair. There’s a distinct lack of heart present, with the show being in danger of focusing on shallow fan service than trying to be its own entity.

This series functions as a direct sequel to The Clone Wars. If the similarities in animation style weren’t enough of a clue that these shows are connected, then seeing The Clone Wars literally changing into The Bad Batch in the opening will be. The latter follows the titular group of misfit clones (who featured briefly in the former) as the preceding series come to an end and the infamous Order 66 is executed. However, being defective, the group don’t succumb to the command and quickly find themselves as outsiders within the newly founded Galactic Empire. Alongside a plucky youngster named Omega, they make their escape.

The animation is vibrant and energetic. Blaster lasers fly everywhere in the selection of skirmishes seen so far. Though the action set-pieces have been rather small-scale so far, it just wouldn’t be Star Wars if there weren’t larger battles further down the line to look forward to.

What The Bad Batch has in action, it drastically lacks in writing. The Bad Batch themselves are very one-note. The team (who consist of Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker and newcomer Echo) simply don’t make for interesting protagonists, especially when their names are derived from their sole character trait. There’s still plenty of room for character development to occur; but so far there’s no hint of this anywhere.

If The Clone Wars satisfied your Star Wars itch, then The Bad Batch will continue to do so. If not, it’s unlikely that this latest entry will have you hooked either.

Andrew Murray

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is released on 4^th May 2021.

Watch the trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch here: