Lucasfilm and Disney have just unveiled a brand new Original Clone Trooper who will
be introduced in the upcoming episodes of the Bad Batch, and have also dropped all of
the titles for the Episodes which are releasing in July…
On top of that, they have also announced a massive change to the scheduling of the Bad
Batch which is going to shake things up massively.
So before we break down all of this awesome new information, make sure you hit the bell
button below for more Bad Batch content.
So to start off, a brand new Clone Trooper was revealed and added to the Kenner Bad Batch
Toy line.
His name is Clone Captain Ballast, and based on his markings, he could be serving in the
501st.
The colours do look slightly different to the ones we saw on Rex in the other image
they released, but I’m sure it’s just the lighting of the Shot.
Awesome to see a brand new Clone Trooper, original to the series finally being introduced
as the Bad Batch really is all about the story of the Clones!
Captain Ballast could even be one of the Clone Rex was referring to when he said that it
was rare for a Clone Trooper to resist their inhibitor chips.
The way he said definitely made it sound like he had seen examples of it before, and we
know that he can’t be talking about Commander Wolffe or Commando Gregor because, Rex also
said “i’ve never been on this side of it before”, meaning he hasn’t managed
to take their chips out yet.
Another awesome point to note about Captain Ballast is that his armour still has the traditional
Clone Markings seen throughout the war.
This in stark contrast to most other clones serving in the new Imperial army, seeing as
any armor markings were pretty much banned for Regular troopers, unless you were a member
of the Coruscant or Kamino guards, which were highly prestigious positions among Clone Troopers.
This was done mostly to maintain order and enhance unit cohesion among the Clones, which
honestly wasn't needed.
But this is the empire, so these things are very much expected.
With Captain Ballast having painted armor, this could mean the theory about him being
on of the clones who resisted Order 66 is true, and he may have defected before the
Empire was even created, putting him in a very similar position to Rex.
Interestingly, the other toy that was revealed showed Rex in a slightly different Robe to
the one we saw him in, in the last Episode on Bracca.
The one he wore in that episode was fully grey, whereas this one has fully replaced
everything below the head with brown cloth.
Rex is almost certainly going to show up again, so this could be a hint at the next outfit
he is wearing.
It could also just be a toy thing, but I do think he’ll get a new robe.
Finally, we also got a glimpse and the new Captain Grey toy, whis is very cool to see,
but pretty disappointing that they’re sticking with the Green trimmed armor, which is of
course a Retcon to the very awesome Kanan comics.
They’ve also switched his rank down to Clone Captain which makes sense, since Caleb Dume
would have been the Jedi commander, but it leaves Clone Trooper style’s fate unknown.
He will either demoted to another rank or be taken out completely!
Following that, we were given all of the titles for the Episodes releasing in July, along
with a note which stated that all future Disney+ series, including Star Wars ones will be moved
to the Wednesday Timeslot, rather than the Friday one which they have been released in
so far.
It’s not clear if this change will apply to the Bad Batch starting in July, but its
definitely something to be aware of.
So, let’s break down all of the episodes titles and what they could mean.
The first one the list covers will be released on the 2nd of July and is Called Common Ground…
To me, this definitely sounds like an episode where the Bad Batch will find some common
ground with a separatist or a group of separatists.
During the War, the Bad Batch were arch enemies with anyone who was a separatist, so this
could be where they come together and discover that really, there isn’t that much that
makes them different.
This will probably be where they come to the realization that the Separatists and Republic
were equal victims of Palpatine’s plan, and that the whole war was a sham from the
Start.
After that, we have the Episode named “Devil’s Deal” which is releasing on Julty the 9th.
This could really mean anything, but I think the Bad Batch are going to be forced to make
a deal with the Devil like the title says, and trade something very important to them
in order to survive.
It could also be referring to Maul, who is still active and running the Crimson Dawn
crime syndicate at this point.
He does literally look like a devil, so it would be a perfect title.
On top of that, Maul and Crimson dawn have been getting a lot of attention recently with
the War of the Bounty Hunter comics covering the time after his death, and how Qi’ra
is the new leader of the Syndciate, and attempting to bring them back on the Galactic stage.
Now after that episode, we have a really interesting one, releasing on the 16th.
This one is called Rescue on Ryloth.
We could actually also finally see the story of how Hera Syndulla rescued Chopper from
a Y-Wing.
We know from Rebels that During the Clone Wars, Chopper served the REpublic navy as
a navigational astromech and served at during the Ryloth Campaign where his Y-Wing was shot
down and badly damaged…
Eventually, Hera Syndulla managed to Rescue Chopper from the Wrecker and made him her
new droid.
So I think it’s very likely we’ll see some flashbacks and story about this.
The other possibility is that we’ll see how the young Twi’Lek girl Numa went from
a lost young kid to joining the Ryloth Freedom Fighters with Cham Syndulla.
Numa was the young Girl that Waxer and Boil found during the Battle of Ryloth, and during
Star Wars: Rebels, we saw that she grew up and was now serving at the right hand of Cham…
This is a story we’ll most likely get much more on!
Next up is an Episode called Infested, which is releasing on the 23rd of July and really
could mean anything.
The Batch are likely going to be thrown into the hive of some deadly creatures and will
be forced to escape.
And to end of the list, we have an episode releasing on the 30th of July called War Mantle.
We already know that War Mantle, which was first seen in the imperial Vault on Scarriff
in Rogue one, is the Empire’s project to transition the Grand Army of the Republic
away from Clone Troopers and into enlisted recruits.
This tells us that we’re likely going to see more of the transition play out, and possibly
even the Clone Troopers start to develop a hatred of the non-clones.
This is also not the final episode of the series, with
2 more taking place after this, potentially meaning this is the lead up to a 2 part finale
with the Kamino Rebellion being front and centre.
We’ve had so many hints towards the Kamino Rebellion already.
It’s very likely that we’ll also be getting plenty more from Tarkin and his dealings with
the imperial Army, delivering orders directly down from Palpatine.
On top of that, we’re also probably going to get far more backstory and development
on Admiral Rampart, who is in charge of Project War Mantle, which is currently competing with
the beginnings of Galen Eros’s project stardust.
And that ties into another thing we’ll probably see more of.
We still have Saw Gererra’s story, and a trip to Raxus secundus, the former capital
of the Confederacy upcoming, which we know thanks to the trailers, so that is something
to look forward to.
It’s also almost certain that Lux Bonterri makes some sort of appearance, as we’ve
expanded on his story heavily in Recent Star Wars books, so it just makes sense to bring
him back in this period and on the screen.
Moving to some other Star Wars news, ,Lucasfilm also announced that the trailer and details
about Star Wars: Visions, the new animated series being created by some of Japan's top
animation directors, will be coming out next month, giving us a peek into the stories that
will be told and which parts of Canon they will touch on.
I don’t think Star Wars: visions will be covering too many major events in Canon, and
instead will be self-contained stories, but it should be fun either way.
So that is your news update for this week in Star Wars.
We got some massive bad batch news as well as an update on Star Wars visions and a change
in programming for the upcoming Disney+ tv shows.
Thanks so much for watching, really hope you enjoyed the video.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one!