Star Wars Day is less than a month away and the franchise is in rude health. The Mandalorian‘s amazing second season has resulted in an explosion of new shows announced for Disney+, not to mention the movies confirmed to be in development. On May 4th, I’m hoping for some sneak peeks at those upcoming series (especially Obi-Wan Kenobi), and updates on how the various film projects are progressing. But don’t spend too much time pondering the future, as the day will also see the feature-length premiere of The Clone Wars spinoff Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
The animated show will follow the adventures of Clone Force 99, a unique squad of clone troopers who each possess special skills that make them more effective and deadly than ‘yer regular grunt. The stories will be set in the period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and will feature several well-established characters, with The Mandalorian‘s Fennec Shand, Rogue One‘s Saw Gerrara and A New Hope‘s Grand Moff Tarkin all set to make appearances.
One aspect that’s remained a mystery, though, is how long the first season will be. The CG animated Star Wars shows have had variable lengths, with The Clone Wars sporting 22-episode runs before rounding out its story with a 12-outing final season, and Rebels and Resistance tended to land somewhere between 15 and 22 installments. It seems as if The Bad Batch could be one of the longer ones, though,
In a recent interview, composer Kevin Kiner said the following:
“I’m working on episode 14 now… I hope I can say that, I think I can. I just did a big action cue… it’s in a jungle scene… I’m having a great time with it.”
That doesn’t sound like he’s talking about a finale, so fingers crossed this is a hint that we’re getting a full 22-episode first season. If so, it’d mean new outings of The Bad Batch are going to arrive weekly on Disney+ throughout the summer, ending just in time for Star Wars: Visions and then feeding into the premiere of The Book of Boba Fett. Let’s hope we get some confirmation soon.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch‘s 70-minute opening episode hits Disney+ on May 4th, and the show will then drop new outings on Fridays beginning May 7th.