UPDATE! Star Wars Celebration Anaheim: The Untold Tales of The Clone Wars. Bad Batch Summary!
While the critically-acclaimed animated series The Clone Wars came to an untimely end due to Disney’s purchase of the franchise, the story has lived on via Netflix (The Lost Missions), comics (Darth Maul: Son Of Dathomir), and novels (Dark Disciple). Showrunner Dave Filoni and Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo go into more details about what else will come from the currently untold stories – along with when these stories shall see the light of day.
The panel began with a discussion of unused concepts that carried over from The Clone Wars to Rebels, such as Ahsoka’s role in the show. I didn’t get into the panel until after this part, so I don’t know the details. (I will say thanks to an attendee who told me about this after the event – on the off chance that you’re reading this, you get a ton of brownie points, fellow fan!)
One animatic (with complete vocal work) showed Cad Bane tutoring Boba Fett on Tatooine, attacking a group of Tusken Raiders. Dave Filoni described the relationship between the characters as a passing of the torch (as Cad Bane was rivals with Jango Fett, and he wanted to see if his clone could be as powerful an opponent). The story was compared to the film For A Few Dollars More in terms of tone and characterization.
Another arc involved Yoda, Kashyyyk, and Wookiees, which was spiritual in nature. One Wookiee rode a large monkey-like creature, and another was seen praying toward the forest of Kashyyyk. An animatic of the Wookiees, the clones, and the monkey creatures fighting a swarm of Netcasters was shown.
The Bad Batch revolved around four altered clones working together, and it was described as a spiritual successor to “Rookiees”. More will be shown in another panel, which will reveal an animatic of all four episodes.
The eight-episode Quinan Vos/Asajj Ventress story arc, which will be adapted into Dark Disciple, was also discussed. Quinan’s characterization was meant to be similar to his characterization late into the comic Star Wars Republic, which made him a lot less carefree and more brooding. Another Ventress/Ahsoka Tano crossover was planned, but ultimately scrapped. Ventress also had a ship called the Banshee. Dave Filoni revealed that the ship will be appearing in Rebels, but under the possession of a different character. A clip of one episode involving Ventress was shown with her hunting down a bounty, only to be trailed by Quinlan in another animatic. Another animatic showed Boba Fett and other bounty hunters trying to take on Count Dooku.
Several images were also shown. A model of Deepa Bilaba was shown. Medical shuttles were seen landing in a Separatist/Mandalorian battle that was portrayed in Darth Maul: Son Of Dathomir, alongside Maul’s ship. A sensual picture of Padme is drawn onto a shuttle that the Bad Batch fly, to which Anakin shows displeasure toward. Coruscant ruins showing the Sith Temple beneath the Jedi Temple on coruscant was shown. Ground soliders and air soldiers argued between one another. A sketch of a Yuuzhan Vong was shown (for an episode where they would have played a role in abducting a character). Ahsoka Tano and Yoda-themed Clone Trooper helmets were shown. Ahsoka and Captain Rex’s story arcs would continue through a series of episodes that would pass through the events of Revenge Of The Sith and beyond. One last animatic showed Ahsoka racing on a malfunctioning speeder bike while descending through Coruscant.
Filoni also revealed that Barriss Offee did not die at the end of The Wrong Jedi, and that he had plans for her as a character. He also mentioned that a Cad Bane appearance in Rebels is not planned, but that an Embo appearance was a definite maybe – though he also stated that nothing was impossible regarding the show (except for Anakin’s old pal, Kittster, which he turned down).
UPDATE!
The animatics for all four episodes of The Bad Batch arc were shown today. The four Clone Troopers introduced in the episodes were different from the rest by means of mutations in their genetic code. The soldiers worked together to free Anaxes, a contested territory from the Separatists. Along the way, Rex discovers that Echo, a Clone Trooper previously thought dead, was alive and transformed into a cyborg by Wat Tambor. The Bad Batch, Rex, and Anakin rescue Echo on a Separatist-occupied primitive planet, and then return to Anaxes. They use Echo’s newfound knowledge of Separitist codes to kill Admiral Trench and save the planet. The Bad Batch also appeared on the Kashyyyk arc that I mentioned earlier, and Echo joins the team.
More questions were answered after the show. Dave Filoni clarified that he could not say if Rex could return to Rebels or not, but he said that anything is possible. It was said that Wat Tambor was broken out of prison, explaining his involvement in the described arc. Filoni noted that presently, future projects for more adaptations of unused scripts are not planned at the moment, and that their goal with the projects is to be as faithful to the script as possible.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Still don’t understand why the show had to be cancelled. Can anyone explain?
Trouble over network shifts and Disney’s orders. At least it’s nice that we’re periodically getting this content in various other forms of media, though.
Cartoon Network had exclusive rights to air the show.
How many eps had voice-over work done that were never finished? At least they should be completed.
No Cad Bane in Rebels kinda squashed some hope. Ugghhh he’s too good to pass up. Maybe if Rogue One is in between ROTS and Rebels and he’s present in that time period and somethin happens there. Oh well, excited nonetheless!
The Vong?! Crazy stuff, but Bad Batch with Padme and Boba being trained by Cad Bane! Awesome stuff I wish to see somehow!
WTF the Vong???? Holy shit that just makes stuff even more interesting. And the Sith artifacts beneath the Jedi Temple was revealed or will be discussed more later? WOW….shit is about to go down, son!
The Sith Temple is discussed in Tarkin in a scene from Sheev’s POV.
The Vong is deeply surprising, that’s crazy that they planned some episodes with them. Sad no plans for Cad right now, actually surprised by that I thought with his popularity that a Rebels appearance was inevitable. Barriss is a character I definitely want to see again, it’d be cool to see what her mindset was behind her actions more and how she feels about what happened afterward.
What a waste, this show went from strength to strength then got binned far too quickly. I don’t think that they should be showing off ideas that we’ll never see realised, just makes us want the show back even more!
Does anyone have a link to the panel recording?
I lost alot of interest initially in anything the clone wars had to say when they brought Maul back, and turned him from the most frightening Sith to a damn clown.
but interest wasnt fully lost..UNTIL the lost episodes where they showed Yoda talking to qui-gon and him learning how to become immortal….this bugged me because obviously Filoni has no clue…and his team are morons and someone failed to bring to their attention the fact that – Yoda Did not have his first discussion with Qui-gon until Anakin had already became Darth vader…He was on the tantive IV escaping Order66 when qui gon contacted him for the first time right before padme gave birth to the twins…THAT IS CANON…It is in the ROTS Novel and also IN the movie. you dont hear qui gon talking …but you see Obi won enter the chamber as Yoda is meditaing talking to Qui Gon as the whole scene was not in the movie because lucas was a jackass and didnt think that scene needed to be in it.YODA EVEN MENTIONS THIS TO OBI WAN TOWARDS THE END OF THE MOVIE!!!! the scene where they decide to take luke to tatooine and have obiwan watch over him…! when this happens in clone wars it is WAY before Order 66 even happens and padme isnt even pregnant yet!…..it is completey dumb and i cannot beleive it does not bother anyone…..No one even mentions it!!! TCW….pffft
You’re not alone!
That’s…not accurate at all.
Deleted scenes aren’t canon.
He isn’t talking about the deleted scene. He’s talking about what was established in the movie and the novel, which absolutely is CANON.
Oh wow, so Vong was THAT close becoming canon.
Oh well.
So maybe van sandow plays echo ?
Can someone explain to me why Obi-Wan wears partial clone armor in this series? It seems like a detriment to his character IMO. Appearance is huge especially in cartoons.
I think both Obi-Wan and Anakin looked better with the armor and it took nothing away from their characters or power (after all armor has been establish to not be very protective against even rocks and stick s anyway). So my question is, why weren’t they wearing it in ROTS? 🙂
Look at them holding their lightsabers like fucking amateurs. It’s a two-handed weapon people!
If anyone wields two sabers during a battle in TFA, I’m walking.
Thats crazy. They are literally light. Not metal sword.
The ONE thing I wanted to see they didn’t stream, 😛
These things make me sad. The more I know what they were planning to do, the more I feel sad. Really. I just wonder of what it would be, how magical would be to see all of those arcs being completed and fully animated(Yeah, I don’t like when they release these stories in another way like comic, book, etc.).
Are the Clone Wars Bad Batch animatics posted under Star Wars Legacy anywhere on youtube or something? Anyone know where we can see these?