Star Wars Finally Follows Up an Unresolved Clone Wars Plot by Bringing Back Its Scariest Monster

Star Wars has become somewhat infamous for its plotholes and/or unresolved storylines – especially in the era of Disney's Star Wars. Indeed, there have been concerted efforts in the last few years to fill in gaps in the sweeping lore of the Star Wars Saga – and today is no different! 

The latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 sees the return of a nightmarish monster that was last seen during the earliest seasons of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. The new episode, "Metamorphosis", takes things a step further, by finally picking up on a plot thread that the franchise has left dangling for going on 13 years! 

In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 2 episodes "The Zillo Beast" and "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" saw The Republic's military campaign against the droid army enter a new phase, as a weapon called the electro-proton bomb was used to take out a droid battalion on the planet Malastare. While the bomb worked, it also awakened a fercious beast living underneath the planet's surface – a near-indestructible beast called the Zillo Beast. 

The Zillo was ultimately captured on Malastare and brought to Coruscant under the orders of Chancellor Palpatine, to have its indestrudible armor scales turned into better armor for the Republic. In the second episode, "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back," the Zillo Beast escaped Palpatine's captivity, and the highly-intelligent monster tore through the city looking for revenge against Palpatine. In the end, The Republic used deadly gas that nearly killed friends as well as the monster. 

However, a dangling plot thread was created at the end of the story, when Palpatine commanded that the Zillo Beast be cloned in secret, so that he might still reap the benefits of the beast's power. Then we never heard about the Zillo Beast again...  

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

In the Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode "Metamorphosis" the members of Clone Force 99 are called upon to scavange a crashed Imperial vessel. That vessel, it turns out, was transporting the top-secret clone of the Zillo Beast to an Imperial base, when the creature escaped. The Bad Batch ends up having to battle both the Zillo Beast clone and the Imperial forces that come to retrieve it. However, in the end, the empire re-acquires the Zillo Beast clone (now fully-grown) and places it into stasis. 

Star Wars' Zillo Beast Storyline – Why It Matters

Addressing Clone Wars' dropped plotline of the Zillo Beast is one thing; however, this Bad Batch episode takes that dangling thread and actually ties it to another massive story gap in the Star Wars timline: the issue of how Palpatine ultimately clones himself. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's eleventh-hour surprise return of Plapatine has left fans scratching their heads since the film wsa released in 2019. When the Zillo Beast episodes of Clone Wars aired in 2010, the issue of cloning was just a minor tie-in to the Prequel Trilogy; after TROS, it was a much more conspicuous loose end to leave hanging. 

Now, The Bad Batch has added yet another piece to this puzzle. The Mandalorian Season 2 also investigated the Empire's cloning efforts by the time of the New Republic era, so this is definitely a larger story taking shape in the wings. Hopefullyt it won't be 13 more years before we fully explain the Palpatine clone... 

Star Wars: The Bad Batch streams new episodes on Wednesdays.