The Big Picture

The Bad Batch
‘s Jennifer Corbett and Brad Rau discuss the core themes of the series.
Michelle Ang reflects on her time voicing Omega and her hopes for the future.
Dee Bradley Baker recalls Tech and Fives’ tragic deaths.

“I would bring it back to Season 2 with the conversation between Tech and Omega in the cave, where he’s talking about change being a fundamental part of life. You have to accept it and adapt and move on in order to grow,” Jennifer Corbett, The Bad Batch’s head writer mused when asked what she hopes fans take away from the final season of the series, “I think that’s very much a part of this show, is that it’s about change, it’s about loss, about hope, and you always have to keep moving forward.”

After three seasons, the animated Star Wars series, which was a spin-off of the long-running Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is coming to an end. Ahead of the premiere on February 21, I had the opportunity to speak with Corbett; the series’ supervising director Brad Rau; Michelle Ang, the voice of Omega; and Dee Bradley Baker, who voices nearly every clone in the series. While we discussed a lot of finer details, like the intentionality of animation, all three conversations focused heavily on the end of the series and what that meant to each creative.

“We talk a lot about hope and the shining light in the darkest of times,” Rau shared. “We talked about it a little bit today, but overcoming differences to achieve a greater good. Although that’s kind of cheesy, it means a lot to us in our private lives, with our families, and as we talk as a group. We hope the fans go away with that sentiment.” Earlier in the conversation, he echoed these same sentiments when discussing which characters he and Corbett would miss the most. “[W]e talk about it all the time. The fact that we knew we were going to end at the end of Season 3 before we even started conceiving of Season 3 was really huge. We were able to do it on behalf of our characters on their terms in a way that was really satisfying, that you don’t always get in this business. You don’t always get to do that, so that was really cool.” Corbett similarly shared:

“We don’t want to say goodbye to the family, but we must. But again, bittersweet because we’re thankful we were able to tell the story that we wanted to tell, and we just hope that it resonates with the fans and that they’re happy with how it ends.”

Star Wars: The Bad Batch The ‘Bad Batch’ of elite and experimental clones make their way through an ever-changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars.Release Date May 4, 2021 Creator Jennifer Corbett, Dave Filoni Seasons 3 Studio Disney+ Franchise Star Wars

How ‘The Bad Batch’s Cloning Plot Connects to Larger Stories

One of the major aspects of the final season of The Bad Batch is that it finally delves deeper into Emperor Palpatine’s cloning schemes. These schemes ultimately bleed into The Mandalorian and the culmination of The Rise of Skywalker, which means The Bad Batch is essentially laying the groundwork for stories that have already been told. With this in mind, I questioned Corbett and Rau about how it works to ensure each aspect of the story connects to what already exists and what will exist in the future. “Well, luckily it’s not just Brad and I doing this,” Corbett explained.

“There’s the whole Lucasfilm story team that when we’re talking about these kinds of storylines, they’ll chime in and give us some feedback and say, “Well, X is doing this, Y is doing this.”
But it’s never usually, “Don’t do this.” It’s more of like, “Well, how can we make it work here to better serve all the stories?”
So it’s a very collaborative experience. Especially, again, when we’re talking about something as important as cloning, which affects many projects.”

Unlike live-action, which enjoys the benefit of happy accidents that make for retroactive foreshadowing, animation is a very intentional medium. Season 3 of The Bad Batch brings a lot of components from the first two seasons to a close in satisfying ways—thanks to it always having a three-season plan—but I was far more focused on the minutia, including a moment in the premiere which sees the bars of Crosshair’s cell cast a crosshair shadow across Omega’s face. When asked about how these tiny details are decided, Rau offered up an in-depth explanation:

“It all starts from the script and knowing Jen’s awesome script. Jen, you and I talked about it so much, and we shared designs back and forth just to make sure that we’re moving in the right direction.
We knew, based on the script, what the tone is going to be and how the characters are gonna act and how they’re going to react, so then it’s on me and the whole crew to make sure that we’re honoring that visually. It was in the design phase before we even started our pre-vis storyboard reels where, working with art director Andre Kirk, we wanted to figure out, “We need these doors to be a little different.”
We didn’t want them to be ray shields. They’re cool, but it wasn’t gonna work logistically for how we wanted to go. And so we started talking about the patterns. We were talking about the shadows creating patterns on characters’ faces. That’s why we designed it exactly the way we designed it.”

He went on to say, “Then when it went into the story phase, in discussion with the director and the story team and the editors, we had, I’ll be honest, too many shadows everywhere that had that little crosshair. So we had to kind of, then, back it off a little bit. But yeah, we were talking about that really early on.”

Michelle Ang Says Goodbye to Omega

“It is a very solitary thing,” Michelle Ang noted about the recording process for The Bad Batch. “It’s very imaginative because normally you have a costume, and you’ve got sets, and you have none of that. Like, I’m in my gray little booth. So it’s all about reading the words and interpreting the environment and how Omega would be in that environment.” Similarly, Omega spends a lot of time in isolation too, which is something Ang went on to explain.

“But Season 3 starts up with her being in essentially kind of like this cell, like a prison cell, in a very, very sterile facility, and it’s sort of unknown, but there’s been an indeterminate amount of time she’s been stuck there.
So, for me, it was thinking about this desire for optimism and hope in the face of physical, not drudgery, but sort of like being under-stimulated and alone, and the sort of texture of what that would do to you.
So it was quite physical in the sense of, like, a heaviness, but a desire to try and reach for hope.”

Fortunately, Ang didn’t have to record all of the final season alone, as she revealed. “It’s kind of surreal because when we recorded the final episode, it was so emotional, both in terms of the content, but also just holding this knowledge that it was the last recording we were going to do. And we were so lucky that we were able to do it in LA, so we were physically together.” She went on to discuss saying goodbye to the character.

“But then it felt weird because you do the recording and then there’s this whole edit and post-process, and then you do pick-up so we sort of got to see each other again, but we’d already sort of said our goodbyes. Then now we’re doing this part of the chapter which is like sharing it the world and getting to talk with people like yourself. So, she’s not really ended yet for me in so much of the sense. Maybe once the season comes out, then that will be like, “Wow, the end?” I mean, I hope not. I don’t know.
I hope that maybe people will still want to talk to Omega or me about her, or I’ll get to participate in a Celebration or a convention.
But I think I’m a little bit in denial just because I’ve had this tail-end of the experience.”

She’s hopeful that this isn’t the last time she’ll play Omega, however, cheekily adding, “I’d love to do some live-action Star Wars because I’m predominantly a live-action actor. So, throw me in the ring, [Dave] Filoni!”

Related ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Season 2 Recap: What To Remember Before Season 3 What happened with Hunter, Wrecker, Echo, Crosshair, and Omega?

Dee Bradley Baker Reflects on Tech & Fives’ Sacrifices

Dee Bradley Baker has been voicing characters within The Clone Wars universe since the series premiered back in 2008. His journey with the clones spans the better part of his career, which means he’s saying goodbye to a lot more than just The Bad Batch when the series draws to an end in May. When I asked him which clone proved the most difficult to say goodbye to, the actor was quick to answer: “The most difficult for me to let go of had to be Tech. I mean, I relate the most to Tech.” Tech met a tragic end in the Season 2 finale, when he sacrificed himself to ensure that his brothers and Omega made it out of a dicey situation. It was a major act of heroism—something that Baker reflected on with his answer.

“The solace of that letting go is the heroism and the effectiveness of what he was able to get accomplished with the final gesture of his life.
So, he was able to save his friends as well as keep the mission alive. He made it.
He’s the one who made the sacrifice and made it, as opposed to, like, Fives who
almost
, he just came so close and didn’t quite make it. Just as heroic, it just didn’t work out. So, I’m at least glad that Tech made it before he made the final sacrifice.”

I seized on him namedropping Fives, whom I had previously spoken to Corbett and Rau about during the junket. Like Tech in The Bad Batch, Fives had a rather tragic end in The Clone Wars, one that fans—like myself—are still quite sad about. And it seems, Baker feels the same way about Fives.

”
Fives is, for my money, the saddest Star Wars character, the most tragic of all.
It is because he’s truly just a good man who is trying to do the right thing and makes a heroic and incredible effort and just doesn’t quite make it, just almost, and it’s heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking. I still sign pictures of Rex holding a dying Fives at conventions because fans are just… And I’m like, “Really? I’ve got other happier pictures.” They’re like, “No, no, that’s the moment. This is the guy.” They love Fives still.”

From there, I circled back to Tech’s untimely death at the end of last season, inquiring as to what was on Tech’s mind as he made his sacrifice. “Well, Tech, I would imagine, is running through every single option quite accurately and fully in great detail in terms of what he can do to accomplish what needs to be done. So, he’s not going to be thinking about, ‘How do I save my life?’ He’s thinking about, ‘How do I save my company and my family? How do I keep this thing alive? Because if I don’t, it stops here. All that we’ve done stops now, so I’ve got to absolutely perform.”” He added:

“And perform, he did! I mean, if you re-watch it, it’s a spectacular, really impressive final display of improv and expertise and keeping cool under pressure, and it’s an amazing finish. I mean, he executes it flawlessly in the face of such challenge and adversity. I just imagine he’s processing, as he does, all the variables and quite correctly comes up with the correct answer.”

To learn more about what Baker, Ang, Corbett, and Rau had to say about The Bad Batch, be sure to watch the full interviews in the players above. The first three episodes of the final season of The Bad Batch premiere exclusively on Disney+ on February 21. Stay tuned for more of Collider’s coverage of the series and the Star Wars franchise. Check out the trailer below:

Watch on Disney+