On Tuesday, the second trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch dropped, and it looks fantastic.
We learned that it will premiere with a 70-minute special on May the 4th before weekly episodes begin on Friday, May 7, and the trailer gave us a further look at what to expect from the show – including some familiar faces. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out:
So let’s dive in to breaking down what we saw in the trailer!
On Kamino, the Bad Batch prepares to face the training course. There are several quick establishing shots to open the trailer.
Observing the training are none other than Wilhuff Tarkin and Lama Su, two important figures. Tarkin obviously has the Emperor’s ear and his trust, and quickly becomes one of the key leaders in the new Empire. Lama Su governs Kamino and oversees the cloning process. They are overseeing the training of clones, and in this particular instance, Clone Force 99.
We hear Tarkin saying, “A test is in order. Five enhanced clones, more capable than an army. Yet they exhibit a concerning level of disobedience and disregard for orders.” In the previous trailer, it looked like a bunch of clones are on Kamino in the wake of Order 66, and that Tarkin is too, so it seems likely that this happens early in the show, as Clone Force 99 returns to Kamino to figure out what’s next for them in the wake of the Republic’s collapse. And they are put to the test by Tarkin to see what they’ve got.
I like this voiceover because it also helps to set the stage for this show: the Bad Batch, even though just five clones, are more capable than an army. This makes them a very formidable opponent for whoever they’re up against, but they employ unorthodox methods and don’t exhibit much care for doing things by the book. For an Empire that is very much about rigidity and conformity, it’s no surprise that the Bad Batch soon finds themselves on the outside. In many ways it is precisely their unorthodox approach that makes them so formidable, but it’s also (at least one of) the things that makes them clash with the Empire.
I’ll also say this: the fact that the Bad Batch is still going rogue at this point in time could suggest that they don’t have the inhibitor chips like the other clones. The other clones all followed orders exactly in Order 66, and while we don’t know for sure what happened with Clone Force 99, it seems likely that they didn’t betray the Jedi. They’re still just doing their own thing. And if I’m right on that, it could be another part of the reason why Tarkin doesn’t seem to trust them very much.
There are a number of very quick glimpses at the Bad Batch approaching the training arena, facing off against training droids, and taking them out one-by-one – led, of course, by Wrecker’s eager antics. This goes to demonstrate what Tarkin is saying: they are a great squad, but don’t play it by the book.
After Wrecker’s antics of rushing ahead and fighting the droids himself, he shouts out toward Tarkin, “What else you got? Give me more!” We also get a shot of the squad regrouped, so they all spring into action at some point. Tarkin doesn’t look too pleased – presumably, as already mentioned, by the lack of uniformity.
We see a shot of Kamino at night, with V-Wings flying by. I’ve got to say, I’m super excited to be heading back to Kamino! This will actually be our first look at the planet after the Clone Wars, so even though it’s immediately afterward, I still think it’s awesome to be going back.
Hunter says, “Our squad’s nothing but trouble. But we get the job done.” It looks like the group is still on Kamino when he says this, but the trailer cuts to show us Hunter stealing a bike on a different world, and he’s not wearing his clone armor. We see the group looking like this later in the trailer, so I’m going to go ahead and speculate that this is after they are unwelcome by the Empire and hunted. They’re rogues trying to survive.
Next we get a series of shots on a forested world. The Bad Batch takes out some battle droids, and then we see clone troopers fighting along a path, with a big explosion up ahead that is seemingly triggered by the Bad Batch. So this confirms that we’ll see battle droids in action, as well as clone troopers, but regarding this particular instance, I’m actually wondering if this happens at the very beginning of the show, right before Order 66. This scene very much looks to be still in the Clone Wars, with the battle droids fighting, but also the planet they are on looks very familiar: it looks like one of the planets shown very briefly in the prologue of the Siege of Mandalore, showing glimpses at the war across the Outer Rim. This isn’t a great quality picture, but hopefully you can still recognize the similarities:
So I’m thinking that this battle sequence might actually be the opening of the show. Perhaps the Bad Batch is fighting alongside other clone forces on this planet in the final moments of the Clone Wars, and that’s when Order 66 happens. This then might lead to many clones being brought back to Kamino to await further instructions, but Tarkin wants to put this special group – who I’m speculating doesn’t execute Order 66 – to the test. All of this is just a guess… but I’m thinking that these shots actually take place prior to the regular events of the series.
Ok so here we have maybe the most intriguing part of the whole trailer: there’s this kid who shows up and, from the looks of this trailer, seems to have a significant part to play in the series. The kid says, “You’re clone force 99,” and the squad is surprised to hear that she knows who they are. But who is this kid? We don’t know! This is our first introduction. But the subtitles in the video reveal her name as Omega. Now interestingly, Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet and has thus become also synonymous with the ending or the last of something. So, if this kid’s name is Omega, it at least raises the question: is she the final clone of Jango Fett manufactured on Kamino? That would be super interesting.
But you’ll also note that she doesn’t look anything like the other clones. So it’s possible that she is the clone of another test subject (or not a clone at all, I suppose!), or that she is another clone with genetic mutations. The second one is what I’m leaning toward, because she knows of clone force 99 and winds up joining them on their journeys across the galaxy (as we’ll see later in the trailer). This would make a ton of sense if she too is a clone with mutations just like the rest of the Bad Batch. Maybe she’ll join their crew as the sixth (or fifth… more on that in a moment too) member, and maybe she will be the younger character new to all of this that serves as a primary protagonist for younger viewers to latch on to, much like Ahsoka Tano (The Clone Wars), Ezra Bridger (Rebels), and Kazuda Xiono (Resistance). Come to think of it, of course this show was going to have that kind of character, who is new and naive to this thing, who we get to watch grow and learn, and who younger people can connect with. And I’m sure that’s Omega.
As mentioned already, the Bad Batch is surprised to learn that Omega knows who they are. And this leads into a sequence where Omega names them all, and the trailer shows us brief glimpses of them in action…
HUNTER. We see Hunter again without his clone trooper armor (though Echo has his), and he’s fighting clone troopers. So this really helps us place things, as this is after the Empire begins to hunt the Bad Batch. Hunter here actually shoots clone troopers, which I hope is given some room in the show – I’d be interested in seeing how clones process killing their “brothers” – or if the Bad Batch really even considers these “regs” to be their brothers at all. I hope the show will explore the characters’ emotions and reactions to all of this.
ECHO. We see the former 501st clone trooper here helping to fix the hyperdrive of their ship, saying that the hyperdrive is back online.
TECH. Echo fixing the hyperdrive allows Tech, as the pilot, to make the jump into hyperspace, escaping the pursuing fighters.
WRECKER. True to form, Wrecker is seen telling Tech and Echo in the mess hall, “let’s blow something up!” We then see a crashed Republic cruiser on another planet and Wrecker blowing part of it up – as one of the members (I think Tech) is almost caught in the blast.
CROSSHAIR. Finally, we see Crosshair saying, “Your move” before he shoots a dagger that flies toward a droid, taking it out, during the training sequence we glimpsed earlier. Curiously, in this montage of the Bad Batch members, Crosshair is the only one seen exclusively during the Kamino sequence. Taken by itself, that might not mean too much. But taken in light of the whole trailer, it’s extremely interesting and suspicious, and here’s why: Crosshair is only seen on Kamino in any of these shots… and there are plenty of shots of the Bad Batch together without him. Let me pull out a few from throughout the trailer; take a look:
The most notable of these are when the Bad Batch seems to be trying to escape Kamino by stealth, and when they fly away in their ship… and neither time is Crosshair with them. In light of all of this, it’s looking very likely that Crosshair isn’t with them after Kamino, and that really provides two options: either he dies, or he joins the Empire. It’s possible that Crosshair will die, perhaps in a moment that spurs on the Bad Batch to flee, or in an effort to help them escape. But though possible, I’d be pretty surprised if they killed off one of the five members of the Bad Batch right away (since the Kamino stuff seems to happen early on). More likely to me is that Crosshair actually chooses to betray the others and remain loyal to the Empire. This wouldn’t be a huge surprise, since Crosshair is without a doubt the biggest jerk of the group, but it would raise the stakes both practically (since he’s a formidable threat) and emotionally (since he’s so closely connected to the others) if he becomes one of the primary antagonists. And, well, we’ve already got a glimpse in the first trailer of who that might be:
This black clone trooper looks to be an elite clone, and I’m now thinking that it’s probably Crosshair. And if that’s really the case, then I think it’s likely to make the show that much more interesting, because it’s got such a personal element to it.
We get more of Tarkin, including him arriving to Kamino accompanied by the Coruscant Guard, and then we cut to him saying, “I want clone force 99 found and wiped out.” It appears that the clone troopers are ordered to hunt down clone force 99, who go on the run from the Empire. What we don’t know is what leads to this happening, though I suspect that all of this will be the impetus for the events of the series – the squad finds no home in the Empire and is forced to go on the run and try to chart their new place in the changing galaxy.
After seeing Tarkin, we see another familiar face in Fennec Shand! We hear her say, “The galaxy’s a dangerous place to be.” We get a few more glimpses of her in this trailer, and I’ll just say that I’m really excited to see this connection with The Mandalorian as we see Fennec decades before the events of that series.
As an illustration of Fennec’s point, we see the Bad Batch encountering a giant lizard creature – which looks to be a brezak. This planet also seems to be featured quite a bit in the trailer, and it seems to me like it’s Zygerria. We see the brezak here, and later we see a Zygerrian slaver on the same world – so that’s definitely my guess as to what planet this is.
We then see Hunter saying, “We need to get out of here,” and then we see the group sneaking through Kamino (minus Crosshair, of course, as we mentioned earlier). Then we see Hunter kneeling to talk to Omega, saying, “What do you say kid, you want to come with us?” To this, Omega responds, “How can I help?” She agrees to go with them, and so she appears to be joining the crew.
We then see the Bad Batch fleeing in their ship, though they’re not fleeing Kamino in this shot. They are pursued by enemy fighters, however, and Hunter mans the guns to fire back at them.
THAT’S CAPTAIN REX!!! Probably the biggest surprise of the trailer to me is Rex’s inclusion, and it’s also surprising that it’s not played as a pivotal moment in the trailer or anything – it’s just briefly shown in a few shots. But it’s notable because this very clearly happens post-Order 66, since Rex didn’t seem to have met the Bad Batch before The Clone Wars season seven, and more significantly, because Omega is with them. So in other words, we’ll actually get to see Rex following the events of the Siege of Mandalore! I wouldn’t say this is super surprising, since we probably could have guessed Rex’s eventual conclusion, but I didn’t see it coming this early or in this trailer. But I’m super pumped about it. I wonder what he’s up to at this time, but I think it would be really cool if we see him on the hunt for other clones – maybe those like him who didn’t carry through Order 66. We know that Gregor and Wolffe did not either and that they wind up “retiring” with Rex, so it would be cool to see Rex finding them. Or maybe he’ll search for Cody, wanting to find out what happened to him. Whatever it is, I can’t wait to see him again!
Omega fights with a bow, which looks reminiscent of a nightsister weapon. Is that a clue as to who she is, or merely a coincidence? I’ll go with the latter unless/until we have reason to believe otherwise.
There appears to be a squad of clone troopers marching on a city square, but the Bad Batch apparently hijacks one of the walkers and begins firing on another one. My guess as to what planet this is? Raxus, the former capitol of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
Another familiar character shows up: Saw Gerrera! Having appeared already in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Rogue One, we’ll get to see Gerrera shortly after the end of the Clone Wars here, and maybe we’ll find out more about what happened at Onderon. He tells the Bad Batch, “The Clone Wars have ended. You can either adapt and survive, or die with the past. The decision is yours.” In many ways, that seems like the summary and premise of the show.
Hunter and Omega ride on a speeder bike in pursuit of Fennec Shand, and Hunter throws an explosive on her speeder. The explosion throws her off the speeder and she falls onto a taxi. They’re chasing after her, but it remains to be seen why. It looks like any relationship between the Bad Batch and Fennec will be tense, at best, early on.
Wrecker jumps into the middle of a bunch of droids and begins fighting them. These look to me like Mining Guild droids.
As mentioned earlier, we see a Zygerrian slaver, and Hunter fighting against him.
The trailer ends with the Bad Batch (minus Crosshair, of course) in their ship preparing to jump to hyperspace. Hunter tells Omega, “Strap in, kid,” and we get to see the reflection in her eyes as she watches them jump into hyperspace. From the looks of it, this is maybe the first time she’s traveled in hyperspace, which furthers the speculation from earlier that she’s going to be the young, naive kid at the beginning of this show who we get to watch grow and learn.
And that’s it for the trailer! There’s a lot there, and in the end, it makes me even more excited for this show – which I suppose is the goal of any trailer! And in general, I’ll just say this: the show looks absolutely beautiful. I love the animation, and just hope the story is great too – which, given the track record of Lucasfilm Animation, I have little doubt of.
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