A new trailer for The Bad Batch has been released, less than a month away from the release of the second season of the successful animated series!
The trailer gives a look at the elite clone squadron and their missions in the galaxy, while also giving a look at some other returning characters like the clone Commander Cody and the Wookiee Jedi padawan Gungi. In all of this, there’s plenty of beautiful visuals and interesting shots, but not a whole lot to come by as it pertains to the overall plot of things.
A new poster was also released, promoting the series:
The second season premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, January 4, meaning we’re a little less than a month away from its release. The season will debut with a two-episode premiere, and surprisingly the episode titles and release dates for all 16 episodes have seemingly already been announced. It seems there will be a two-episode premiere on January 4, then a two-episode release at midseason too (on February 8), and a two-episode finale on March 29. In the other weeks between January 4 and March 29, there will be one episode released.
This means that there will be five weeks where The Bad Batch overlaps with The Mandalorian (which premieres on March 1), which marks the most substantial overlap of Star Wars shows in the Disney+ era. This animated series won’t be able to compete with the streaming service’s flagship program, but I’m very curious – and hopeful – to see what kind of attention The Bad Batch continues to receive in the final month of its run. With all the Star Wars content coming to Disney+ in the coming year (and beyond) it’s inevitable that there’s going to be overlap, but I’m interested in seeing how it’s handled.
One reason I’m curious is because it seems The Bad Batch has been taking a back seat already. The silence leading up to the show was beginning to be deafening in recent days, so this trailer is certainly welcome and hopefully it means that marketing and publicity is beginning to pick up. Though it’s a bit concerning, and very strange, that at the end of the trailer we hear a voiceover say, “Parents, The Bad Batch!” Is that suggesting that only kids are going to want to watch this? If so, that’s a shame, and would seem to be one final victory for ousted Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who seemed to think that only kids like animation. I hope that Star Wars isn’t beginning to embrace those unhelpful and untrue stereotypes, but that was a strange inclusion in the trailer that seemed to come out of nowhere. I hope I’m making too much out of this and that it’s not that big of a deal, but we’ll have to see how the marketing continues.
All of that is for another day, however. Today, let’s enjoy the trailer for the second season of this thoroughly enjoyable show, and I can’t wait to see it return!
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