Star Wars: How The Bad Batch Will Tie To The Mandalorian Explained

Star Wars launched its newest series in the form of The Bad Batch, with the first episode premiering on Tuesday in celebration of Star Wars Day. The series follows the events of its animated predecessor Clone Wars but will also inform some of the events and characters being explored in the popular live-action series The Mandalorian, as well. Though The Bad Batch is set an entire movie trilogy earlier than The Mandalorian, it borrows characters like Fennec Shand and showcases their earlier days in the Star Wars lore. While talking to ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview, The Bad Batch producers Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett teased some of how the new animated series will inform what we are seeing on the live-action show.

“Really, the lame answer is we can’t talk too much about that,” Rau prefaced. “But it’s exciting what the possibilities are, the type of characters, the specific characters that are alive and kicking around during the time period of The Bad Batch is really awesome. Like Fennec, like other characters that we won’t mention, that we will likely see some familiar faces. And we also have fun introducing brand new characters you haven’t seen before that we feel really close to, and we think the fans are going to dig as well. So yeah, we get into all of that stuff.” Some of those familiar faces might be more Jedi appearances like the one in the first episode, as well.

Ming-Na Wan’s Fennec appeared in The Mandalorian (and will go on to The Book of Boba Fett) as a seasoned warrior. The Bad Batch has an opportunity to show a different side of the character’s journey and it seems it will be doing that.

“When you see [Fennec] in The Mandalorian, she’s very skilled. She seasoned. She’s been around,” Corbett explained. “And when you meet her in the Batch, she’s in the early stages of her life as a bounty hunter. So it’s fascinating to have her be, partnered in a sense, in an episode with the Batch, where they’re also in this beginning stage of a new era of their lives and finding what their new purpose is and how they can survive, while she’s making a name for herself as a bounty hunter. So, it’s definitely fun to play around with her in this world.”

Other than that, we will have to watch new episodes of The Bad Batch every Friday to find out more! Are you excited to dive further into the Star Wars lore? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram!