'Star Wars' Voice Actor Sam Witwer Spills Some Beans About 'The Bad Batch' Show's Story And Animation

(Image Credit: Lucasfilm)

Earlier this year, the final season of the animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars brought the Bad Batch in their finished form to Disney+ subscribers. Fans had seen this elite squad of mutated clone troopers in unfinished story reels back in 2015. So it was a victory for fans of these characters to see the squad how they were meant to be seen, or perhaps even better than originally believed to be possible, seeing how technology advanced by 2020.

Recently, Lucasfilm officially announced The Bad Batch spinoff, which would follow Crosshairs, Echo, Hunter, Tech, and Wrecker doing mercenary work after the Clone Wars. There is potential to explore how the clones feel now that they have served the purpose for which they were created. They could potentially go just about anywhere, and perhaps even be more fleshed out than they were in the arc that introduced the squad.

Voice actor Sam Witwer is no stranger to Star Wars. After voicing Galen Marek (AKA Starkiller) and Emperor Palpatine in The Force Unleashed video games, he went on to voice The Brother in the Mortis arc of The Clone Wars, and then Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Solo. During a stream on his Twitch channel, when he was playing Thief II: The Metal Age, Witwer actually dropped a bit of information regarding what he knows about the upcoming series:

“It looks absolutely beautiful. The story...at least I know where the story begins for the first several episodes and I was very pleased because it's a little area of Star Wars that has not often been visited."

The mention of “a little area” that is seldom explored may fuel some speculation. If he is referring to a location, what familiar place that we have not seen very much of could it possibly be? Then again, perhaps “area” could refer to an aspect of Star Wars that has not been explored very much. The gray area of mercenary work could possibly fit that bill, at least as far as onscreen material is concerned. While Witwer did not specify the meaning of this, he went on to talk about the work that went into the new show:

"It meant getting a lot of people back in there that had previously been at Lucasfilm and moved on when Clone Wars was canceled. In order to do Clone Wars, you needed a lot of those folks back. What I liked is that they didn't just put all back that together only to let them go again. So what I saw was brilliant, extraordinary beautiful, beautiful, beautiful animation. I won't say what it looks like but I will say this, of the quality of Clone Wars where that bar is set, yes absolutely, totally.”

While it may not be surprising to hear that the show is visually beautiful after seeing the high quality of The Clone Wars season 7, it is certainly reassuring to hear. The mention of seasoned people coming back to Lucasfilm to work on this show does raise some questions. Witwer could simply be talking about people who have worked on making the show, in terms of sound, visuals, etc. He could also be referring to returning voice actors. While it is pretty much a given that Dee Bradley Baker would come back to voice the clones, Witwer’s insider knowledge may leads fans to think that he himself could return to play Maul going up against the Bad Batch, an idea that could potentially get mixed reception. Perhaps there are even more returning voice actors playing other familiar characters, though one would hope that they do not overshadow the Bad Batch.

In any case, this little tease of what is to come, as vague as it may be, is one of the first steps in building up the hype for The Bad Batch, which is set to be released on Disney+ sometime next year.

Source: The Direct