Disney has announced that Star Wars: The Bad Batch will be returning for a second season, but not until 2022.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is an animated sequel/spin-off to The Clone Wars. It chronicles the adventures of Clone Force 99, an elite squad of clone warriors with genetic mutations.

The series introduces a new clone, Omega (voiced by Michelle Ang), a young girl who doesn’t seem to have a lot in common with her clone family on the surface – but she does seem to have the ability to pick up new skills unnaturally quickly, and is exceptionally good at strategy and tactical analysis.

She’s the reason the Bad Batch is on the run from the Kaminoans and the Empire, but we don’t yet fully know why, or what her full potential truly is. Her story has yet to be fully explored, as the series has spent much of its first season keeping the clones busy with missions for Cid (Rhea Perlman) and bringing them into contact with characters from other series (notably Captain Rex and a young Hera Syndulla, who gets her first taste of piloting a starship alongside Omega during one of the firefights).

The Bad Batch is executive produced by The Clone Wars‘ Dave Filoni along with a team of experienced Star Wars folks: Athena Portillo (The Clone Wars, Rebels), supervising director Brad Rau (Rebels, Resistance), head writer Jennifer Corbett (Resistance), and Carrie Beck (The Mandalorian, Rebels).

The two-part finale of Season 1 will be on Disney + Friday, August 6, 2021. Season 2 will not be broadcast until 2022. At least one person has complained on Twitter that this announcement spoils the season finale, as they know know that some or all of Force 99 will survive the season finale.

Kevin Kiner’s score for The Bad Batch is being released digitally by Walt Disney Records  in two volumes: music from the first eight episodes was released on June 25, 2021, and music from the last eight episodes will be released on August 20, 2021. A track from the albums, “Enter the Bad Batch”, was released digitally as a single on May 13, 2021 (we play all the music from The Bad Batch – remember our DJs take requests, if you ask politely).

As all of Clone Force are cloned from the same DNA, one actor voices the whole of the Bad Batch, the talented Dee Bradley Baker. Mr. Baker also voiced Daffy Duck in the original Space Jam, Max Blaster in the educational video game series, Lance Thunder in Danny Phantom, Sundae in various Ronald McDonald cartoons, Curt Connors in The Spectacular Spider-Man, and various voices in Ben Ten, My Friends Tigger and Pooh,and Scooby Doo. Baker will voice Murf in Star Trek: Prodigy. Canadian rapper Big Kish (Andrew Kishino) voices Saw Gerrera, who was played by Forest Whitaker (Zuri in Black Panther) in Rogue One,

Will you be watching Star Wars: The Bad Batch when it comes next year?

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