Dave Filoni may be in the driver’s seat these days, but you simply can’t separate Star Wars from the man who not only created the original independent film, but proceeded to reign over the box office with it back in 1977.
That said, it seems that the last official bit of George Lucas’ influence is set to come and go on May 1, when the final episode of the final season of The Bad Batch lands on Disney+, sneakily marking the end of one of pop culture’s greatest-ever relationships between a creator and their creation.
The Bad Batch voice actor Dee Bradley Baker, who portrays just about every clone in the series aside from Omega, spoke recently to Screen Rant and pointed out that Clone Force 99—the mutated clone trooper squadron who resisted Order 66 and who serves as the show’s protagonists—was the last idea that Lucas ever put into the Star Wars canon himself, having created them for the Clone Wars series, which Lucas and Filoni also made together.
Obviously, plenty of Lucas’ characters are continuing their journeys, especially in TV properties, but Baker makes a strong argument for this being the end of an important era.
That actually tracks back to the original idea that George Lucas came up with because this is sort of the end of George Lucas’ legacy is the Bad Batch – he came up with that idea, and it was part of the original Clone Wars series that he made with Dave Filoni… The dynamic that he and the writers came up with was very clear… so that they feel so different, that it was actually easy for me – easier for me – than keeping the clones distinct because they all feel like such different people to me.
When we last saw Clone Force 99 at the end of season two, things were going from bad to worse; as if the team reeling from the apparent loss of Tech wasn’t bad enough, the team were soon after betrayed by their on-and-off informant Cid, ultimately leading to Omega being captured and brought to the Empire’s Advanced Science Division in Mt. Tantiss.
However the remaining members of the squad try to resolve their latest round of dire straits, though, the sense of The Bad Batch‘s final season being Lucas’ parting gift to the franchise just might take precedence in the minds of many following Baker’s revelations.
The first three episodes of The Bad Batch land on Disney+ on February 21, with additional episodes releasing every Wednesday until the series finale on May 1.
(featured image: Disney+)
Published: Feb 14, 2024 01:03 pm