Star Wars: The Bad Batch dropped its feature-length premiere earlier this week, and as an end tag we got a new trailer that teases more of what’s to come in season 1. The latest Bad Batch sizzle reel features a lot of tantalizing cameos – but there was one that fans never predicted we would see but are so glad that we did! That would be the Baby Rancors that will be showing up in The Bad Batch‘s future episodes and are already becoming another cuddly-creature addition to the Star Wars catalog. Check out the new Star Wars: The Bad Batch trailer “For Hire”, above!
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Rancors first made their appearance in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, during the classic scene in Jabba The Hutt’s palace. Luke Skywalker approached Jabba after Leia’s attempt to rescue the Carbonite-frozen Han Solo fails. Even after reaching the status of a full-fledged Jedi Knight, Luke isn’t prepared for Jabba’s level of cunning, as the slug-bodied crimelord activates a trap door and drops Luke into a pit to face Jabba’s pet Rancor, Pateesa. Luke ultimately outmaneuvers and kills Pateesa – leaving the Rancor’s human handler heartbroken.
The Rancor sequence in Return of the Jedi was so popular that the creatures have since exploded into both Star Wars canon, as well as the non-canon “Legends” content. In the expanded view of things, Rancors have been tamed and even domesticated – albeit by fierce and savage races like the Witches of Dathomir.
The Bad Batch looks like it will continue adding layers of complexity to the Rancor species – and keep fan enthusiasm about them growing, at the same time. After the massive runaway success of The Mandalorian‘s “Baby Yoda” it’s no surprise to see Star Wars rolling out more baby-fied versions of its most iconic (and merchandise-ready) creatures.
As for what the Bad Batch will offer: it looks like Clone Force 99 will get locked into a fight with whoever owns and/or is training the Baby Rancors. Even as babies, Rancors are clearly still pretty large in size and plenty ferocious – but luckily, Clone Force 99 has their hulking member “Wrecker” on hand to go toe-to-toe with this Baby Rancor- which is sure to be a fan-favorite moment of the show.
What would be cool is if we learn that this battle between Wrecker and Baby Rancor is somehow the origin of how Jabba’s pet Rancor Pateesa was trained for his future at Jabba’s Palace. Star Wars loves doing stuff like that, these days…
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is releasing new episodes on Disney+ every Friday.
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