Star Wars: The Bad Batch has the distinction of taking place during a period where its writers have a bit more creative freedom with where they take their stories. The series has made some significant additions to Star Wars lore during its run so far. However, there’s a group within Lucasfilm whose job is to check up on the various projects to make sure they’re meshing well with the officially established canon. That might sound a bit stingy on the studio’s part, but for Rau and his team at least, it’s handled pretty well.
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Speaking with The Direct, Rau mentioned how The Bad Batch isn’t viewed with quite the same watchful eye as other Star Wars series. “Honestly, we’re still a little bit earlier than those shows,” he said, referring to their place on the timeline. “We do have a little bit more wiggle room, you might say for our Star Wars space dads.” Space dads is an apt term, particularly given how The Bad Batch season 1 saw the titular group of “defective” clones take on the care and training of the young female clone Omega. A story element like that can certainly benefit from having less oversight to spread its wings.
That’s not to say there’s no oversight at all, though. Lucasfilm still has a presence in the writing room. It’s just a little more laid back than, presumably, how other projects operate the often baffling Star Wars canon. “We rely on the Lucasfilm Story Group a lot to answer your question specifically where any time we occasionally will have a storyline or a character or a setting that they’ll weigh in on and let us know if there’s something else going on,” Rau continued, before specifying that the Story Group doesn’t make them feel stifled. “We don’t ever feel like restricted but they’re definitely there to help support and make sure things are connected.”
Clone Force 99, the group of main characters in The Bad Batch, is currently in a pretty enviable position. While they’ve got a substantial story going on right now, they still have yet to appear in any movies. Plus, their impact on other stories beyond their own has been minimal, focusing on a group of deserters just trying to get by after (rather messily) breaking their ties with the Galactic Empire. This more tight and intimate story gives the show’s creators the freedom to tell the tales they want to tell with less concern about how it will affect the greater Star Wars canon.
Maybe Lucasfilm should take some cues from how things are handled here and with other shows like the genuinely incredible Andor. Allowing creators to bring up new stories on their own terms that just so happen to be set in the Star Wars universe has the potential to expand what the franchise can be. Maybe not all of it will be quality content, but they’ve got to stir, whip, stir, whip, whip, whip, and stir a bit to get to the good stuff.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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Source: The Direct
