Season 2 of “Star Wars Rebels” recently kicked off in our universe, but in an alternate dimension where George Lucas did not sell “Star Wars” to Disney, fans are currently reflecting on the conclusion of Season 7 of “The Clone Wars” and looking forward to Season 8, probably the epic final season of the show. While we’ll never get the full run of “Clone Wars” as originally intended by Lucas, we recently got the story reels for the “Bad Batch” arc, which according to Wookieepedia would have been the first arc of Season 7. The four episodes are posted on the “Clone Wars Legacy” page at starwars.com.
Building on the idea of the janitor clone named 99, from back in Season 3, Bad Batchers are malformed clones who are outcasts even among their own ranks (although some of the more upstanding clones – like Rex, Cody, Fives and Echo – mourn 99’s death). While 99’s physical challenges limited his ability to contribute in the field of battle, the “Bad Batch” arc, written by Matt Michnovetz and Brent Friedman, features Bad Batchers with psychological issues but special skills that make them perfect for off-the-books missions.
Many “Clone Wars” fans, as evidenced by the Q&A panel after the arc’s screening at April’s Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, love individual clone characters. I enjoy them too, but have a hard time telling them apart. No such problem with the Bad Batchers, who look different from normal clones, despite coming from Jango Fett stock. Dee Bradley Baker also voices them quite differently. Hunter initially reminded me of Rambo, but at the panel “Clone Wars” supervising director Dave Filoni made an apt comparison to Billy from “Predator.” Wrecker is the musclebound one, who suggests he’d let Senator Amidala negotiate with him any day (which – keeping with the “Predator” angle — is the “Clone Wars” equivalent of announcing he’s a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus). You can probably guess the skills of Tech and Crosshair from their names.
Hopefully we’ll get to see more of the Bad Batchers in future stories, but this marks the end of “Clone Wars” story reel releases. The “Bad Batch” episode opens with a thank-you to “Clone Wars” fans, and although another Celebration panel featured clips from future episodes, Filoni noted in the Q&A that those episodes were not nearly as close to being finished as the “Crystal Crisis on Utapau” and “Bad Batch” story reels were.
So, kind of like when I put together a makeshift remainder of “Firefly” Season 1 with comic books, an unproduced script and an unreleased novel, I can now engage in cobbling together an ersatz “Clone Wars” Season 6 and 7, along with guesses about what we might see in the future.
“THE CLONE WARS” “SEASON 6”
Episodes 1-13: The episodes from “The Lost Missions” DVD. This marks the conclusion of the fully produced episodes of the TV series.
“Episodes 14-17”: The “Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir” comic. This four-issue series adapted the scripts for “The Enemy of My Enemy,” “A Tale of Two Apprentices,” “Proxy War” and “Showdown on Dathomir.”
Episodes 18-21: The “Crystal Crisis on Utapau” story reels — “A Death on Utapau,” “In Search of the Crystal,” “Crystal Crisis” and “The Big Bang.” All can be watched at starwars.com. Because Seasons 1-4 were 22 episodes long and Season 5 was 20 episodes, it seems like this is where Season 6 would have concluded.
“THE CLONE WARS” “SEASON 7”
Episodes 1-4: The “Bad Batch” story reels — “Bad Batch,” “A Distant Echo,” “On the Wings of Keeradaks” and “Unfinished Business.” All can be watched at starwars.com. Wookieepedia says this arc was supposed to kick off Season 7.
“Episodes 5-12”: The novel “Dark Disciple,” by Christie Golden, to be released on July 7. The novel is based on scripts for an eight-episode arc featuring Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos. The episode titles were to be “Lethal Alliance,” “The Mission,” “Conspirators,” “Dark Disciple,” “Saving Vos, Part I,” “Saving Vos, Part II,” “Traitor” and “The Path.” Intriguingly, at “The Untold Clone Wars” panel at Star Wars Celebration, Filoni said Ventress breaking away from being Dooku’s apprentice and becoming an independent operator was Lucas’ idea, meaning this book might be the last piece of “Star Wars” lore to come directly from Lucas (It has become clear that “Episode VII: The Force Awakens” is not based on a Lucas outline, as was originally intended when the sale to Disney was announced).
WHAT WOULD HAVE (AND MIGHT STILL, IN SOME FORM) COME NEXT
Season 7, episodes 13-16?: “The Untold Clone Wars” panel hinted at more storylines that were in the early stages when the series was canceled. Since the panel showed a story reel clip of Cad Bane and his new apprentice, Boba Fett, fighting Tusken Raiders, I’m going to guess that would’ve come next in Season 7. Production art also features Aurra Sing – a character who I personally thought was out of commission for far too long (she was last seen in Season 3) – among this unholy alliance of bounty hunters.
Season 7, episodes 17-20?: The panel also featured a clip of Wookiees – including Chewbacca and Tarfful — in a battle on Kashyyyk. The Bad Batchers would’ve been in the mix, with Echo as a fifth member. This arc would’ve perhaps tied into Yoda’s “Episode III” line about having good relations with the Wookiees.
Season 8, episodes 1-4?: Getting less specific as the panel went along, perhaps reflecting that these stories were further out on the horizon, we also saw production art of Darth Maul. “Son of Dathomir” showed us that he survived Darth Sidious’ Force-lightning attack in Season 5. He is still alive at the end of the comic, but unaffiliated with any galactic power. Perhaps the next Maul arc would’ve kicked off Season 8.
Season 8, episodes 5-6?: Art of Depa Billaba was shown in the panel, too. Billaba was the first character to get a major reboot in the Disney canon when the “Rebels” prequel novel “A New Dawn” recast her as Kanan’s master rather than Mace Windu’s troubled friend (particularly chronicled in the novel “Shatterpoint”). That frustrated me, because while I respected Lucas’ rewrites of the EU, I was less inclined to accept Disney’s rewrites. But now I wonder if “A New Dawn” does indeed reflect Lucas’ idea for Depa. Perhaps a Season 8 arc would’ve explored her canonical characterization.
Season 8, episodes 7-8?: The panel revealed plans for an arc – informally dubbed “Top Gun with clones” — of a trooper training session where Rex gets paired with Artoo. Comedy and action presumably would have ensued.
Season 8, episodes 9-10?: The Lucasfilm Story Group’s Pablo Hidalgo, a panelist alongside Filoni, mentioned that “The Clone Wars” planned to return to Mon Cala and visit an above-water Quarren City.
Season 8, episodes 11-14?: Filoni drew a sketch of the ruins of a Sith temple buried under the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
Season 8, episodes 15-16: Filoni’s sketchbook also included a Yuuzhan Vong scout ship that would have stalked and studied the Jedi in an “X-files”-ish horror yarn. This would’ve tied into “The New Jedi Order,” but this was of course before Disney rendered those novels completely non-canon with the announcement of “Episode VII.”
Season 8, episodes 17-20?: Most intriguingly of all, Filoni revealed that the final arc of “The Clone Wars” – as some “Clone Wars Declassified” (on Rebel Force Radio) podcasters had predicted and hoped for – would have taken place concurrently with the events of “Revenge of the Sith” and slightly beyond, with Ahsoka and key clones as the point-of-view characters once Anakin was out of play as a hero.
As a die-hard “Clone Wars” fan, it’s tempting to think two things: 1) Someday, perhaps after “Rebels” concludes, Disney will recognize its mistake and restart production of “The Clone Wars,” and all of these story ideas will come to fruition. Or 2) While the TV series won’t be revived, at least these unproduced yarns will be told in comics or novels, as with “Son of Dathomir” and “Dark Disciple.”
But the ironic wrinkle is that “Rebels” is already repurposing elements from the unfinished “Clone Wars” episodes, ranging from vehicle designs (a Ventress ship and an Ahsoka speeder were repurposed for “Rebels”) to character arcs. For example, we know from the Season 2 preview that Rex, Hondo Ohnaka and Embo will appear in “Rebels.” Perhaps some of their stories will be “pushed back” on the timeline from “The Clone Wars.” Maybe Filoni – who made sure Barriss survived in Season 5, despite to initial plans to have her commit suicide – would’ve used the fallen Jedi to hunt Ahsoka during the climactic episodes of “Clone Wars” if it hadn’t been canceled. As it stands now, Barriss seems a likely candidate to be the next Inquisitor on “Rebels,” especially since Ahsoka has loosely teamed up with the Ghost crew.
While Filoni said Boba Fett and Cad Bane don’t feel like the right fit for “Rebels” (indeed, the “Clone Wars” story hinged on Boba still being quite young), it’s feasible that the Fett-Bane-Sing alliance could be worked into some sort of Disney canon story, maybe even one of those standalone movies.
So while it sucks that “The Clone Wars” is well and truly over as a TV series, its legacy does indeed live on, from big events like the “Bad Batch” story reels and “Dark Disciple” to a smaller influence on every episode of “Rebels.”
Main image: Cartoon Network