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'Star Wars: The Bad Batch' Season 2 Trailer Gives Us Classic Character Cameos

Plus, we now have episode names for the animated show coming to Disney Plus on Jan. 4.

Sean Keane Former Senior Writer
Sean knows far too much about Marvel, DC and Star Wars, and poured this knowledge into recaps and explainers on CNET. He also worked on breaking news, with a passion for tech, video game and culture.
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Sean Keane
2 min read
The Bad Batch pose dramatically on the Star Wars show's season 2 poster

The Bad Batch will return to action in season 2 of the animated Star Wars show.

Lucasfilm

We got a fresh dose of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 on Wednesday, with a new trailer highlighting the CGI animated series' clone trooper action and classic character cameos. The season premieres Wednesday, Jan. 4 on Disney Plus.

Wednesday's trailer includes franchise archvillain Emperor Palpatine, as well as classic Clone Wars characters like Cody, Rex and Wookiee Jedi Padawan Gungi. Most of these were previously revealed in a trailer shown during Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in May, so the new one leans hard on highlighting the season's cool action scenes (and pod racing for all The Phantom Menace fans).

The titular squad of clone troopers first appeared in the final season of The Clone Wars in 2020, and their 16-episode first season came out last year. Along with younger clone Omega, the Batch defied the Galactic Empire and became mercenaries following the events of Revenge of the Sith.

Oddly, the trailer directly addresses "parents" when it notes the streaming date -- likely to highlight that this is an all-ages show after the more intense Andor. The Bad Batch still has plenty of dark moments though.

Season 2 will have 16 episodes, and Disney also revealed the episode titles (so fans can say "Oooh, what does that mean?") and release schedule: 

  • Episodes 1 "Spoils of War" and Episode 2 "Ruins of War": Wednesday, Jan. 4 
  • Episode 3 "The Solitary Clone": Jan. 11
  • Episode 4 "Faster": Jan. 18 
  • Episode 5 "Entombed": Jan. 25
  • Episode 6 "Tribe": Feb. 1
  • Episode 7 "The Clone Conspiracy" and Episode 8 "Truth and Consequences": Feb. 8
  • Episode 9 "The Crossing": Feb. 15 
  • Episode 10 "Retrieval": Feb. 22
  • Episode 11 "Metamorphosis": March 1
  • Episode 12 "The Outpost": March 8 
  • Episode 13 "Pabu": March 15
  • Episode 14 "Tipping Point": March 22
  • Episode 15 "The Summit" and Episode 16 "Plan 99": March 29

Finale title "Plan 99" is particularly intriguing. It sounds like a followup to Order 66, which caused the clone troopers to slaughter their Jedi allies as the Clone Wars ended and Palpatine flipped the Republic into his Empire. It could also be something specific to the Bad Batch, whose official designation is Clone Force 99. 

These episodes are all coming out on Wednesdays, which means the first three will release on the same days as Lucasfilm fantasy show Willow's final two episodes. The last few will land on the same day as The Mandalorian season 3 (which kicks off March 1), so Star Wars fans will have plenty of fresh adventures to enjoy.

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