The newest animated series in the ever-expanding Star Wars Universe has finally arrived on Disney+. May 4th, also known as Star Wars Day, brought with it the first episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which follows a group of Clone Troopers who have slightly different abilities than the rest of the Clones. Many Star Wars fans have been anxiously awaiting new stories set in a galaxy far, far away since The Mandalorian‘s second season ended, but jumping into the animated project might feel like a daunting task. Fortunately, you can go into The Bad Batch without watching any of the other shows, and you won’t really miss anything.
Yes, The Bad Batch does spin out of the events of the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. That series is where the characters featured in The Bad Batch made their first appearance and watching it would offer some in-depth background about where they came from (particularly in regards to Echo). That said, most of it really becomes extra information by the time the first episode of The Bad Batch ends.
The new series does a good job of establishing everything you need to know about these Clone Troopers and how they fit into Star Wars, and it does so rather efficiently. Just a tiny bit of exposition here and there fills in the holes, and you don’t really feel like you’ve missed anything from Clone Wars.
There is also a connection to Star Wars Rebels early on in The Bad Batch, but the story of the episode makes plenty of sense without any previous knowledge of that series either. The only part of the Star Wars franchise you need to understand before watching this new series is the prequel trilogy.
The Bad Batch takes place at the onset of Order 66, which was first revealed in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Palpatine programmed the entire Clone army to execute all of the Jedi when Order 66 was given, telling the clones that the Jedi were guilty of treason. This resulted in the near-extinction of the Jedi Order. This is all addressed in The Bad Batch, but watching the movies does help make sense of Order 66, which is the most important event in the entire show.
If you haven’t seen The Clone Wars or Rebels but you’re a fan of the Star Wars movies, you’ll be able to enjoy The Bad Batch without feeling like you have to binge a bunch of other shows first.
Are you excited to check out The Bad Batch on Disney+? Let us know in the comments!