Star Wars: The Bad Batch Producer Clarifies Season 1 Episode Count

Between live-action series, limited series, and animated series, fans didn't know how many episodes they could expect in the first season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, with producer Brad Rau confirming that Season 1 will consist of 16 episodes. Previous reports had claimed that the debut season could merely be 14 episodes, with confirmation of getting even more adventures surely delighting fans. Given that Star Wars: The Clone Wars ran for 12 episodes, most fans were likely expecting a similar trajectory for the spinoff, only for the producer to confirm many more weeks of adventures in store for viewers. Star Wars: The Bad Batch premieres on May 4th.

"We have 16 episodes in Season 1. We can't confirm any more than that, but we have high hopes," Rau shared with CNET. "We love these characters. We'd love to keep telling the stories."

Clone Wars and Bad Batch creator Dave Filoni has been teasing these characters for years, as they were meant to debut in the final season of Clone Wars, only for the original run of the program to get cancelled unexpectedly back in 2013. Filoni finally got to give the characters a proper introduction in the early episodes of Clone Wars' final season, only for their storytelling potential to result in the announcement of this series.

While only one season of The Bad Batch is confirmed, we won't be surprised if it runs for more adventures, or potentially even earns spinoffs of its own.

The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch – a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army -- each possess a singular exceptional skill which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Athena Portillo (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels), Brad Rau (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance) and Jennifer Corbett (Star Wars Resistance, NCIS) with Carrie Beck (The Mandalorian, Star Wars Rebels) as co-executive producer and Josh Rimes as producer (Star Wars Resistance). Rau is also serving as supervising director with Corbett as head writer.

Check out Star Wars: The Bad Batch when it debuts on May 4th on Disney+.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!