New Animated Series ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Coming to Disney Plus in 2021
Keeping the momentum of “Star Wars: Clone Wars” going, Disney+ has announced its next series from Lucasfilm, “Star Wars: The Bad Batch.” The new animated series will debut on the streaming service in 2021.
“Giving new and existing fans the final chapter of ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ has been our honor at Disney+, and we are overjoyed by the global response to this landmark series,” said Agnes Chu, senior vice president, content, Disney+.
“While the ‘Clone Wars’ may have come to its conclusion, our partnership with the groundbreaking storytellers and artists at Lucasfilm Animation is only beginning. We are thrilled to bring Dave Filoni’s vision to life through the next adventures of the Bad Batch.”
“The Bad Batch” follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch — who were first introduced to fans in “The Clone Wars” — as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars.
Though they are genetically different from their brothers in the Clone Army, members of Bad Batch all possess singular exceptional skills, which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone Wars era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.
The Star Wars franchise has been a huge hit for Disney+. The streaming service launched with “The Mandalorian” back in November and the series immediately became a hit. The series took the No. 3 spot on a ranking of the most in-demand digital originals among U.S. viewers last year.
According to data from Parrot Analytics, the series garnered 40 million “demand expressions” and had stronger U.S. demand than some of 2019’s biggest streaming originals — Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” “When They See Us” and “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” as well as Amazon Prime Video’s “Good Omens” — in its first four days.
The series was renewed for a second season, slated to premiere in October this year. No word on whether the date has been moved as the coronavirus pandemic shut many productions down.