Is The Bad Batch after Order 66?

I say no.

It's been an insanely long time since I wrote about Bad Batch, I was starting to worry everyone had forgotten about my poor little piece on Star Wars Rogue Squadron II's sequel, I've never played Star Wars Republic Commando, and I couldn't be more surprised at the news from last week that Lucasarts has completely nixed the idea of a trilogy of games for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars universe. It's going to be hard for Bad Batch to live up to "The Clone Wars" series, so we shall have to see what happens, but for now, we should all feel the best about things we have. We are free now.

You may have heard a rumor around the internet about Bad Batch since it became the star of an "interview" video with LucasArts on Gametwitter last year (which you can watch here), where it was hinted at with the infamous (and very real sounding) quote "I'm not here to make another Star Wars game, I'm here to make the best Star Wars game possible." Well, there you have it. For the first time in over a decade, a Lucas Arts Star Wars title isn't heading for stores this year, and for that I'm thankful. We'll save the discussion of whether this indicates a return to the dark days before the fall of the Galactic Empire for another time, I'm just hoping there is something coming after the news that was just revealed. LucasArt has the money and time now, and I'm sure they have some ideas cooking.

I'm not one of those people that says you need a license to be able to talk about something, and I know that in some countries these kind of movies or books are still frowned upon, however, in America, as we've seen with Nintendo's success with Twilight Princess and Kingdom Hearts, licensing doesn't really bother some people. That said, you can still talk about these movies/books without having the whole movie industry breathing down your neck if you go about it right, so I'd like to share some thoughts on this, which I don't think will hurt anyone but help educate us on why a Star Wars game needs to come out now.

Did Star Wars: The Bad Batch end?

Last we saw of the Batch, the Jedi were facing down the Empire, but they weren't alone.

As Vader unleashed his evil, a figure that was out of reach appeared on the screen: one that represented hope, one that represented peace. He was a Jedi.e. It was Palpatine and it wasn't a lie, it wasn't fake news. The real truth was that one is evil, and one stands for justice. The truth is that Luke Skywalker stood with his father against the Sith, that there are good forces within the Empire.

And the end of it all? The end of the original series of Star Wars came to an end this week at around 40 minutes into episode one when the Empire struck back on Scarif with a strike team led by Kylo Ren. In a move both bold, clever and just plain fun, the Batch then disappeared from our screens as they made their exit through the force. One man, one lightsaber, one force ghost. And thusly, The Bad Batch is on the run.

But what happened on Scarif? How did the Batch get back to their starting point, in which they were in the Empire at the finale? And will there be more Bad Batches in the future? We're going to talk about that and more. But first, let's take a brief look at what happened on Star Wars Rebels.

In a nutshell, the Bad Batch was a team of five Jedi with a common bond: they had died on Ahch-To. Their story was that one, they were dead. But when Finn went to visit the grave of Rey - which he'd already visited last season - and discovered it unoccupied, this set up the plot of The Bad Batch that began at the end of the season last year. With Finn in charge of the group on Aitohya, they were able to find a small ship that had no name, no map and only one engine left and set off to explore beyond the edge of the galaxy.

On Aitohya, the Batch - the name comes from them being ghosts but at times the 'ghosts' actually do things together, rather than as individual people - discover that the First Order had arrived on a planet and wiped out all life on the world including those aboard their escape pod.