Talk about an exciting and thrilling trailer! The Bad Batch is making a gloriously large return this fall, if the trailer is anything to go by, as it even elicited an audible gasp with the return of Jedi Padawan Gungi the Wookiee, while the updated armor is a fun change and the lush animation is hard to look away from. We’ll explore some other details and the questions which arise around Gungi’s return below, but I have to start by covering how unfortunately, while the rest of the clones look to be animated darker like their Māori ancestor, Temuera Morrison aka Jango Fett, the Bad Batch themselves have not been fixed regardless of fan outcry and their initial acknowledgment of the problem (and while the rest of the clones are looking more appropriate, now it means the darker-skinned characters are the ‘villains’), so I don’t believe they ever intended to truly address this issue and it’s a damn shame.
There’s lots of fun stuff to unpack from the trailer, the least of which is the Batch’s new looks! They released a hi-res close-up of the new armor, which is a fun way to show how much they’ve grown independently from their past and are looking to their future, while imagine Omega had some help pushing them to accessorize!
One of my favorite parts, and it felt like most of Star Wars Twitter’s, was the return of Gungi, the Wookiee padawan last seen in The Clone Wars but whose fate was unknown! Gungi being alive is a huge positive but it opens a chunky can of wombats: what’s the story with his fellow younglings, Katooni (hopefully she’s a pirate Jedi!), Petro, Byph, Ganodi, and Zatt?! Are they all alive or is he the last one? If so, how did that happen? If they are still alive, where are they now…will we see them here?! It’s a fun mystery but I’m just glad to see Gungi at the very least for now. There’s another quick shot of him and then also another Wookiee, with what sort of looks like Kashyyyk behind them, so part of me is curious if we’re getting an adjusted version of the unfinished Kashyyyk/Bad Batch arc from The Clone Wars show, displacing the story to fit in this era, which would fantastic because it included all sorts of unique aspects to Wookiee culture, including monkey-like tree gods! Elsewhere, we will see Huyang in the Ahsoka show, so maybe he helped them somehow, if he’s still operating post-Return of the Jedi!
While Commander Cody appearing is very exciting as well, plus the hints of more Ryloth and clone commandos, I’m more curious about Omega being in the same room with Emperor Palpatine?! What all even is that about?! Is it tied to why the Kaminoans made her, beyond being the source for new clones? Like a test run for Palpatine’s method of returning after death? Why else might he care about her at all? Maybe she’s seen something to expose him for what he and the Empire really are about? Maybe she knows how to take down an important new project? I’m eager to see what goes down because then we’ll know if she will survive the encounter!
To think we have Andor, The Bad Batch, Tales of the Jedi, and The High Republic’s return, alongside books and comics, coming up this year still, which means 2022 still has tons of Star Wars to offer!! In the mean time, catch up with the Bad Batch with our reviews of Season One here!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.