With Andor in the rearview mirror, Star Wars is venturing back to the familiar comfort of its animated world as The Bad Batch returns for its highly anticipated second season. The series sees the return of the titular Bad Batch—Hunter, Wrecker, Echo, and Tech (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker)—and their newest addition Omega (Michelle Ang) as they continue to avoid the watchful eye of the Empire and face new dangers as the galaxy becomes a dangerous place for clones.
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, Collider caught up with series showrunner Jennifer Corbett and director Brad Rau to discuss Dave Filoni's involvement in the series, how some of the plots might connect to The Mandalorian, how they have improved upon Season 1 following the #UnwhitewashTheBadBatch movement, and what they keep in mind as they explore the different personalities of each of the clones.
COLLIDER: So Season 2 has been really good at introducing a lot of new lore to us. Obviously, Dave Filoni is involved in both this and The Mandalorian. So I'm curious if we're going to see any of those throughlines with how both of the shows approach cloning.
BRAD RAU: That sounds like something we're not going to talk about a lot in detail.
JENNIFER CORBETT: But the joy of having Dave Filoni be so involved with the show is that he'll give us tidbits and suggestions of things to include. And we're happy to do that, but sometimes we're not sure either. But we don't want to spoil things, so we're going to stay quiet.
Okay, okay. I also wanted to touch on something that comes up a lot in the Star Wars fandom. I know you're both on Twitter, so you may have seen it: "Unwhitewash The Bad Batch." I know that Season 2 was, I think, almost completely finished by the time Season 1 was already on our screens. So I'm curious to know if that's something you're going to address or at least acknowledge moving forward with seasons.
RAU: We listened to all the concerns of the fans. Interestingly, in Season 1, before Season 1 came out, we're always doing this, we went back to look at the skin tones, and we made some corrections to make sure that we're being true to the legacy of the clones in Clone Wars. Absolutely, 100%.
That's always good to hear that the creatives are listening. Then also, I love how each of the clones has a very distinct personality. And I guess I'm curious when approaching each of the characters, when writing them, what is the key things that you keep in mind when working on different clones?
CORBETT: You're right, they are very different. And a lot of that stems from how Dee Bradley Baker and Dave Filoni envisioned these characters in The Clone Wars. But it's funny because I'm trying to remember how Dee described it. It feels like Wrecker's always looking for the boom and the fun. Tech is very precise. And he's not trying to be funny, he just is with how clinical he is about stating facts. He's, "Just the facts, ma'am." Echo is... God, he's one of my favorites because yes-
He's my favorite.
CORBETT: Yeah. Because I think he's the one who reacts to them the most and is, I think, often saying, "Oh, my God. Is this really how we're going to do things?" Because he's a Reg, and he's used to doing things by the book and that is totally not the Batch. And Hunter is just always thinking a few steps ahead as the leader because he's responsible for all of them. So I think he's taking everything into consideration. And then Omega who is just the heart of the show and just has so much empathy and has a different kind of lens and is always willing to really stand up for people. I think she's helped educate the Batch in many ways.
Catch up with Season 1 of The Bad Batch on Disney+ before diving into Season 2. Watch the trailer for Season 2 below: