Exclusive – The Bad Batch creators tease more Star Wars cameos in future episodes: “They all serve a purpose”
Could we look forward to another major Star Wars Disney Plus cameo?
New Disney Plus Star Wars animation The Bad Batch looks set to have plenty of tie-ins to the wider (and live-action) Star Wars universe, with The Mandalorian’s Fennec Shand (played by Ming-Na Wen in both versions) and iconic Original Trilogy villain Grand Moff Tarkin (Stephen Stanton doing his best Peter Cushing impression) already confirmed to crop up in early episodes.
But apparently that’s just the start – it sounds like there could be plenty more surprise Star Wars cameos popping into the renegade Clone Troopers’ adventures over the coming weeks.
“There may be some other familiar faces [after the first two episodes], I can't really say who or when, but we're excited about them and they all serve a purpose. I'll say that,” The Bad Batch head writer Jennifer Corbett tells RadioTimes.com.
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“It's exciting to write for already established characters,” she adds. “When they're legacy characters and you know that either George Lucas or Dave Filoni created them, there is this personal pressure to make sure that you're doing it correctly.
“We don't want to just bring them back for no reason and we want to keep them true to what they are, but all of those cameos were crucial to The Batch’s growth and the lessons and input they're giving them in their journey.”
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So who could these extra-special cameos joining The Bad Batch cast be? Some fans have already jumped onto the fact that veteran Star Wars voice actor Matt Lanter (who played Anakin Skywalker in the acclaimed Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, which the Bad Batch spun off from) has suggested he’s got a related project coming up, which could hint at a cameo for the former Chosen One.
"There's some new Lucasfilm Animation going on. I've been a part of some things I can't talk about yet. You'll see Anakin again," Lanter told EW. "I never quite put Anakin down, whether I'm doing a video game or something new for Lucasfilm Animation."
However, given when The Bad Batch is set – after Order 66 and the fall of the Republic, at which point Anakin had become Darth Vader – it’s a little unclear how exactly he’d fit in, unless it’s in the form of a flashback.
Perhaps more likely is that we’ll see Anakin’s former Master, to tee us up for Ewan McGregor’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, or another Mandalorian character to more closely connect the live-action and animated worlds of Star Wars. Who knows, maybe Mark Hamill will even do the double and crop up at the end, just as he did to pick up Baby Yoda in Mando's last episode.
Or maybe we’ll see more crossover between The Clone Wars and later animated series Star Wars Rebels, which does pick up the stories of some clones (though not The Bad Batch’s main characters) years later. Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein, pictured above) has managed to appear in both animated series and The Mandalorian as played by Rosario Dawson. Who's to say she couldn't keep up her spree of Star Wars TV appearances?
Whatever the truth, we’re sure that fans will be excited to see which characters end up crashing The Bad Batch’s party. Assuming, of course, that we don’t have another Paul Bettany situation on our hands…
Want more show content? You can read our The Bad Batch review here.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch releases its first feature-length episode on Tuesday 4th May, followed by weekly releases every Friday. Want something else to watch? Check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
