While live-action Star Wars shows like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka have been driving a lot of conversation surrounding the franchise lately, any die-hard fan will tell you that some of the best material can be found in the various animated series. Star Wars has been investing in animation for decades now, with the first big breakout animated series being Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which premiered in 2008. That series, run by the legendary Dave Filoni, did a lot to restructure, recontextualize, and even redeem a lot of the characters and stories from the Star Wars prequels. This trend continued into Star Wars: Rebels, another Filoni show that ran from 2014 to 2018. Now, the latest animated series to carve out some space in the galaxy far, far away is The Bad Batch, a spin-off from The Clone Wars, which is set in the years immediately following Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith.

The Bad Batch follows a ragtag group of unusual clone troopers who, instead of being identical carbon copies of Jango Fett, were biologically altered to have enhanced traits that could help the Republic win the Clone War. These clones – Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair, Echo and Omega – make for an odd family of sorts, and their adventures give fans a deeper look into the state of the Star Wars galaxy in the aftermath of the prequel trilogy. The series has recently begun airing its third and final season, and it has been praised by fans as some of the best Star Wars material of the modern era.

However, to casual viewers, how important is The Bad Batch really? Are you missing out if you don’t watch the show? Here’s what you need to know.

Update February 24, 2024: This article has been updated following The Bad Batch season three premiere and includes more recent developments in the Star Wars franchise.

The Bad Batch Ties Into Various Corners of the Star Wars Franchise

The Bad Batch premiered on Disney+ on May 4, 2021. This came two years after The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian premiered, meaning from the get-go, the series could begin laying the groundwork to fix certain narrative issues with the sequel trilogy, notably how Palpatine returned. This was first teased in The Mandalorian season two, but The Bad Batch has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting. As the series focuses on clones, it makes sense for the series to establish retcons for Palpatine's clones on Exegol. This isn't the first time a Star Wars animated series has been used to help fix the live-action films. Much of the love fans now have for the prequel trilogy comes from The Clone Wars animated series, which helped flesh out many of the ideas and stories the films never could. It enriched the franchise.

The Bad Batch also features many ties to Star Wars past, present, and future. It featured the character of Fennic Shand, who was first introduced in The Mandalorian before becoming a major supporting character in The Book of Boba Fett. This, combined with the cloning storyline that will play out in The Mandalorian, firmly connects The Bad Batch as an important narrative thread in Dave Filoni's live-action Star Wars series.

Related: Star Wars: The Bad Batch Cast and Character Guide

It also connects the two major animated series, The Clone Wars and Rebels. It shows how Captain Rex spent the early days of the Empire before audiences saw him in Star Wars: Rebels, having given up in the fight against the Empire. The pilot of The Bad Batch even features a young Caleb Dune, who fans know grows up to be the character Kanun Jarrus from Star Wars: Rebels. Caleb survives Order 66 thanks to The Bad Batch, tying the titular characters to an important part of the Galactic Saga. The Bad Batch teaches a young Hera Syndulla how to be a rebel, a skill she will showcase in both Rebels and Ahsoka.

The films ever require you to watch The Bad Batch in order to understand something. However, that does not mean the series is unimportant. The Bad Batch provides a lot of supplementary material to the larger stories in the universe. In many ways, The Bad Batch acts as a missing piece of the franchise, integral to connecting various stories. While you can still enjoy Star Wars without watching these, it makes the experience richer to watch The Bad Batch and see how the clone commando units' actions would have major ramifications across the galaxy, even if they never realized it.

Developing the Galaxy

On top of understanding the heart of what made Star Wars great to begin with, The Bad Batch (like The Clone Wars and Rebels before it) also does an incredible job of expanding the galaxy the series exists within. Each episode and storyline brings the series to a new planet with new characters, new settings, and new concepts. Unlike the recent films, which have become obsessed with the Skywalkers and other characters of the original trilogy, The Bad Batch is thoroughly focused on telling its own story, with original characters and exciting new ideas. Filoni, along with Jennifer Corbett and Brad Rau, has created a Star Wars story that stands completely on its own while still providing plenty of the interconnectivity that fans love.

The Bad Batch has explored a rather fascinating but overlooked time period in the franchise, the early days of The Empire. Fans saw the Galactic Republic fall in Revenge of the Sith, but much of the franchise, like Andor, Star Wars: Rebels, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, explores the early days of the Rebel Alliance right before the events of the original trilogy. Even stories like Solo explore the Empire after it has been firmly established, but The Bad Batch delves into how the transition happened for everyday citizens across the galaxy, how Clone Troopers were phased out for Storm Troopers, and how the Empire truly became the massive, unstoppable force audiences saw in the original trilogy.

Related: Why The Bad Batch Is the Best Star Wars Series On Disney+

While the films, and even shows like The Mandalorian, have become stuck in a rut of fan-service-based decisions to some extent, The Bad Batch barely bothers with it. There are moments of exciting crossover, but they are rarely ever the focus of the show. There’s a clear story that is worth telling, and it does not deviate too far from it. Some people may complain that the show is full of “filler episodes” that are just one-off adventures and stories that don’t forward the overall plot of the season.

While it's true that Filoni's shows have always had plenty of standalone episodes like that, those episodes are a key part of what makes these animated series so great. The Bad Batch doesn’t burn through all of its story too quickly. It takes its time and develops its characters through these various universe-building adventures, which then gives the audience more time to gain an understanding of and fall in love with the Bad Batch themselves.

Any casual fans who haven’t watched Filoni’s shows are really missing out on some of the most genuine and faithful-to-the-brand Star Wars material that exists. That goes for all of Filoni’s shows, The Bad Batch included.

The Bad Batch Might Have a Larger Role to Play Soon

The Bad Batch is currently airing its final season, which will conclude on May 1, 2024. This certainly will be the end of an era for fans, and while it is unknown who will make it out of the series alive, based on past series like The Clone Wars and Rebels, it is safe to assume that anything can happen and just because a character is not mentioned in the original trilogy does not mean they will die. Characters from the Star Wars animated series have made the jump to live-action, and there is a good chance many characters in Rebels might as well.

Notably, Dave Filoni is set to direct an epic Star Wars crossover film that will tie various threads introduced in the live-action Disney+ series. This includes The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka (which means, by extension, Star Wars Rebels), and the upcoming series, The Skeleton Crew. There is also a chance that, in this epic Star Wars crossover event, The Bad Batch might have a role to play. Star Wars: The Bad Batch and the various series in the New Republic Era take place about 28 to 30 years apart, meaning that fans could be treated to an older version of The Bad Batch, as well as a grown-up Omega.

Through The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, there has been a noticeable uptick in the amount of material from Filoni’s animated Star Wars shows that have been making the jump to the big screen. As The Bad Batch’s story grows more and more weighty with each season, fans can be hopeful that the series will have some sort of effect or impact on Filoni's new film.

A Good Story Is Always Essential

Regardless of whether The Bad Batch connects or does not connect to other Star Wars stories, what matters is whether it works on its own. The Star Wars franchise is at an interesting place. While general audiences still seem to love the franchise, as The Mandalorian was the most streamed show of 2023 by Neilsen and Ahsoka, ranked in at number 9, there is a mindset among hardcore fans that the franchise is not as good as it used to be. That is always a matter of debate, but it can be said that the large amount of stories on Disney+ have left fans feeling a bit burned out. Combine this with the fact that audiences were largely disappointed by The Rise of Skywalker and are still waiting for a new Star Wars movie until at least 2026; there does seem to be a desire for a really good Star Wars program.

Some might say the only really good Star Wars series is Andor, and while that series is great, The Bad Batch is proof that Star Wars as a franchise is still going strong. Some might dismiss it or not take it as seriously as a priority to watch because it is animated, but that mindset is one that should change. Is a live-action version of a story more serious than an animated counterpart? The recent reaction to Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series shows that sometimes an animated project can be better than the live-action counterpart.

Were you slightly disappointed by The Book of Boba Fett or Ahsoka? Think there is no good Star Wars anymore? Give The Bad Batch a watch and see if you still think that is true.

Stream Star Wars: The Bad Batch on Disney+.