Asajj Ventress, Fennec Shand, and Emerie Karr Spotlighted in Interview With ‘Bad Batch’ Producers
Ahead of The Bad Batch season 3 premiere, producers Jennifer Corbett and Brad Rau discussed three key characters with Gizmodo’s iO9. The three characters are Asajj Ventress, Fennec Shand, and Dr. Emerie Karr.
Beginning with Asajj Ventress, producer Brad Rau detailed how much of the staff was enthusiastic about bringing the character back for animation. Rau also connects back to the novel Dark Disciple — a key part of Ventress’ story — and how the team honored that, while also bringing the character back for important story purposes:
“We love Ventress! I’ll just say, without going into too many details, as a creative team — not just me and Jen — once we knew this was possible, we got really, really excited. A lot of talk went into it, a lot of thought went into it. Even for the design, we looked to unfinished episodes of Clone Wars, the ones that were the inspiration for Dark Disciple — there were already designs that were created and some early story reels.
We wanted to honor that look — her incredible hair, that incredible lightsaber. “What color is that lightsaber!?” Oh my god, there’s so much going on. A lot of that came from [Clone Wars’ unfinished episodes], so we were really, really excited to be able to honor that, and in Bad Batch for a very specific reason [as part of] Omega’s story.
Switching over to Fennec Shand, actress Ming-Na Wen is back to voice the assassin. Producer Brad Rau commended Ming-Na Wen, saying, “Ming-Na is on fire in the episode.” But producer Jennifer Corbett hints at Clone Force 99 possibly making a deal with Fennec Shand to maybe break Omega out:
“She’s just an incredible character, and [Ming-Na] is such a fun person to be around. To pair them with the Batch again, because the last time they interacted was a very different story, I think it speaks to what Hunter and Wrecker are willing to do in order to complete the mission, and the deals they’re willing to make.
We wanted to bring someone back who is that sort of character [to make the Batch go] “Oh, are they going to make this deal?” She was the perfect fit, because she’s the boss! Having them in this episode [with her] doing what they do, I mean… it was fun from breaking the story all the way to the end of animation. I was just like… loved to have her, love to have her in many other things!
Finally, Jennifer Corbett commented on Emerie Karr and what makes her fascinating going into season 3. It was revealed at the end of season 2 that both her and Omega are female clones, but Corbett brings out how the two of them are completely different in personality:
“Omega, she lived on Kamino, but her experiences with the Bad Batch have really formed who she is as a person — whereas Emerie’s childhood was very different. Being raised the way she was, being under the tutelage of Dr. Hemlock, she’s now sort of a tool for the Empire.
We wanted to show the interactions between them, because Emerie is very clinical, whereas Omega is the opposite and wants to have this kind of connection [to others]. It’s been great seeing their dynamic throughout this season, and we have Keisha Castle-Hughes [who previously played Naboo’s Queen Apailana in Revenge of the Sith] playing her, and having her back in Star Wars has been fantastic — she really brought a lot to her character.”
We are just about a week away from the premiere of The Bad Batch season 3. It’s being touted as the last season and looks to feature many surprise returning characters. It will premiere on February 21. We here at Star Wars News Net will continue our coverage of The Bad Batch, including reviews of the episodes following their release.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
