New Star Wars: The Bad Batch Poster Teases Palpatine’s Return

As the direct sequel to Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars, Star Wars: The Bad Batch will explore the beginning of the Dark Times. This is a period when the Rebel Alliance wasn’t even born yet and Emperor Palpatine mercilessly subjugated the galaxy through Vader with little to no resistance. Or at least, that’s the version of history we thought was canon before the introduction of Clone Force 99.

Consisting of Hunter, the leader, Wrecker, the muscle, Tech, the mechanical expert, Crosshair, the sniper, and Echo, a cyborg formerly in Captain Rex’s squad, this commando unit was an aberration even within the Grand Army. Due to their mutated physiology, every member comes with a unique variety of skills, which, given their codenames, is pretty self-explanatory.

We still don’t know what the story will have in store for these characters, but as it stands, the Empire will hunt the group, not to mention that several familiar faces will also appear. The trailer has already let the cat out of the bag about Rex and Fennec Shand, but this new official poster also teases the return of the galaxy far, far away’s ultimate big bad. Indeed, as you can see below, Darth Sidious himself will grace the series with his sinister presence, though to what extent is anyone’s guess at the moment.

The timeline of the new narrative is so early into the fall of the Galactic Republic that the commandos will probably end up fighting their clone brothers, especially since the Stormtrooper legions weren’t still a thing back then in the Imperial hierarchy. As such, we can also expect Filoni and the rest of the writers to continue to dive deeper into the aftermath of Order 66 from the clone perspective.

What are your predictions for Star Wars: The Bad Batch, though? Sound off below.