‘The Bad Batch’: Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett on Dave Filoni’s Involvement, Season 2’s Character Dynamics, and the Empire’s Presence
With the release of The Bad Batch season 2, the cast and crew behind the series have been doing the press rounds, talking to several outlets about what we can expect from the new season, in terms of characters and storylines. Here is a compilation of some of the highlights from the interviews that Jennifer Corbett, head writer and executive producer on the show, and Brad Rau, supervising director and executive producer, did with various outlets.
Season 2 start and Dave Filoni’s involvement
Speaking to StarWars.com, Jennifer Corbett explained how they conceptualized the ending for season 1 as a “closing chapter” for the team, and how that then launched the second season:
“We purposely ended Season 1 closing a chapter. It was sort of a reset for the show. The idea was that now that Tipoca City was destroyed, the Empire thinks the Batch perished in that attack, so they have this relative freedom. They can do missions now and stay a bit more under the radar.”
While The Bad Batch has Dave Filoni’s name pop up during the credits, it’s really unknown how involved the Clone Wars creator is with the spin-off, given his current live-action endeavors. While he didn’t go into much detail, Brad Rau did say that he’s very aware of what the team behind the series is creating:
“He’ll remind us, ‘Dare to be great.’ I think it’s important for everybody to hear that. We’ve gotta push as much as we can push.”
During Star Wars Celebration 2022, Filoni explained in deep his love for animation during the Tales of the Jedi panel, and said that he’s still in contact with the team he worked with during The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. He also made a cameo at the very beginning of the Bad Batch panel. Moreover, speaking to Collider, Corbett said that “the joy of having Dave Filoni be so involved with the show is that he’ll give us tidbits and suggestions of things to include”.
You can find in that Collider link a very detailed description by Corbett of each of the members of the Bad Batch, and why they are each so special. But speaking to /Film, the writer went a bit deeper and explained their relationship with the other clones, or “regs”, and especially how Echo sees them:
“I think with the Bad Batch, their reaction with the clones in the early season, it was more of, ‘They’re the regs; we’re the Bad Batch. We’re different.’ And then when everything happened with the Empire, it was sort of the same but different for them. But then throughout season 2, once they learned the things in season 1 regarding their inhibitor chips and what the Empire has planned in phasing out the clones, the Batch, I think, become a little more personally involved in what that means for them and their identity.
The person leading that charge is very much Echo, because Echo sees the regs as more of his brothers. And we’ve had some friction between him and Hunter in season 1 about [the idea] that they should be doing more. And we do explore that in season 2 because that is very much who Echo is. He wants to help his brothers. So we’re excited to talk about that.”
The Bad Batch‘s character dynamics
In our spoiler discussion for the first two episodes, we mentioned our surprise at the first couple of episodes pairing Omega up with Tech, as opposed to Hunter like in season 1. This is no coincidence, as they explained to StarWars.com, since the new season will be exploring the relationships between Omega and Tech/Echo, a pending subject from season 1:
RAU: “Echo’s so great and we really wanted to make sure that we carved out enough space for how he influences Omega and what he teaches her.”
CORBETT: “The same with Tech. We got to have a lot of fun with him and sort of give him a little bit more, delving into their relationship a bit more.”
As we saw in episode 1, season 2 introduces a brand-new character, Phee Genoa, voiced by Wanda Sykes. Rau said the following about her:
“Wanda is incredible and she brings so much to this swashbuckling character with so much bravado… a scoundrel that has a little bit more flair. If Cid is giving guff to these guys, who’s gonna give guff to Cid? It’s Phee Genoa. Intentionally, when we filmed her introduction, you get to meet her by her boots up on Cid’s desk. And that tells you a lot about this character.”
Speaking to io9, Jennifer Corbett explained how they intended for season 2 to revolve around Omega and her learning path as she navigates the galaxy through thick and thin:
“You know, one thing that was really fun was to see through the season, our star of the show, Omega—to see her growing and learning, not just automatically, but failing. We did that a lot in season one, but we really dig into how that works in season two. And, if we’re doing it right, we see her arc right in front of your eyes as an audience through the action she does, through the things she says.”
We learned in the first season that Omega is actually Boba Fett’s sister. While many have been expecting the two to meet up at some point, Rau and Corbett said in several of the interviews that we shouldn’t hold our breath for this. In their conversation with The Direct, though, they left the door a bit more open, though it seems like if this meeting were to happen, it will not take place in an episode of The Bad Batch:
“I think a lot of people want that because they are brother and sister but it’s important for her, at this point in her life, and where her journey is – she’s at a very different place than where Boba is right now.
So we just really wanted to focus on her growth and her interactions with her found family versus the trajectory that Boba’s currently on. But, you know, never say never.”
In an interview with Agents of Fandom, Corbett explains how the story of the show, and specifically of troopers after the war, is very personal to her:
“I’ve always loved the clones, even before The Bad Batch came along I remember asking to myself, ‘What happens to the clones after the Clone Wars?’ I need to know! And I have an attachment to stories about veterans and I very much wanted to explore what it meant for clone troopers that were designed and trained for one purpose, what their lives are like when that’s taken away from them and how that affects them on different levels, and sort of the brotherhood that they all share through the ups and downs. It’s been a pleasure and honor, really, to tell those stories.”
As far as finding a purpose in life after the war, the members of the team definitely found a different answer than Crosshair, as we saw in season 1. So far, we haven’t seen the character again in season 2, but he’s definitely in there. In fact, Corbett told Daily Motion that her favorite character in the second season is actually Crosshair:
“My favorite character of season 2 is Crosshair. Based off of where we left him in season 1 and the fact that he has doubled down with the Empire, I think he is in the middle of a crisis and doesn’t really understand where he fits in, and the journey we take him on and his relationship with Commander Cody I think is some of my favorite stuff [in season 2].”
The Empire’s presence in The Bad Batch
Speaking to Screen Rant, Corbett explained how the Empire’s expansion has caused a domino effect that will induce the rise of smaller, antagonistic groups:
“Any time we start talking about the Empire, it sort of takes over and it becomes a big thing. We wanted to show the more the Empire is spreading, the more it affects them. Not even just that all storylines are Imperial, but because what the Empire is doing, it’s allowing other groups to sort of rise and also be bad, and those were the kind of groups that the Batch interacts with. That’s sort of the domino effect of the Empire’s reign of power.”
Rau added the following about how the team will interact with their biggest foe:
“We can see the Empire getting bigger and mightier, and more imposing. So if we get closer to that fire, it’s gonna get hot. We wanted to really make sure that if our characters interact at all with the Empire, whether on purpose or accidentally, we wanted to have a big impact. It’s something that we talk about a lot, the Empire is rising, they are not going anywhere. In a way that’s challenging but it’s also fun to explore what that means.”
As we saw in the trailer, the new season will also introduce the head of the Empire, Emperor Palpatine himself. Rau told Screen Rant the following about collaborating with Ian McDiarmid himself when he voiced the character for the show:
“We got Ian McDiarmid to come and do the voice, and what an incredible… And directing him, speaking of not needing too much direction [referencing an earlier comment about working with Dee Bradley Baker] to explain how it’s going (always a little awestruck with a legacy cast member), he was so, very unlike the Emperor, he’s the nicest guy. So great. And there was a funny moment where he corrected the grammar on the scripts. We were like ‘You tell me, you’re the Sith lord, sir.'”
The first two episodes of The Bad Batch season 2 are now available on Disney Plus. You can check out our spoiler discussion here. We were also fortunate enough to get an early look at the first 14 episodes, and posted our non-spoiler thoughts here. Stay tuned for more on The Bad Batch coming soon!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
