In just a few days, the final season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch will begin streaming on Disney+. Since 2008, Dee Bradley Baker has been lending his voice to Star Wars animated series. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars Baker provided voices for all of the clone troopers. Since then, he has continued to provide a variety of similar but different voices for the various Republic clones through a several series. Through the years, he has made these characters unique and recognizable, showing the nuance and strength of his vocal performance.
For Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Dee Bradley Baker continues this trend. In this case, he is voicing all of the five leading roles that make up The Bad Batch. These are a team of genetically-mutated clones that include: Hunter, the steady leader; Crosshair, the angsty loner; Wrecker, the hulking giant with a heart; Tech, the science whiz; and Echo, the cyborg soldier. These are characters that are working closely together and talking with each other. Thanks to the strength of Baker’s performances, one would never realize that they are all voiced by the same person.
Throughout the first two seasons of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the team found themselves trying to survive the dawn of a growing and strengthening Empire that was becoming more brutal and more dangerous with each passing day. As the final season comes to Disney+, it will mark the end of a journey for Baker. He shared with StarWars.com his thoughts on this milestone. “I’m excited. I’m gratified. I’m thrilled, really. I’m also a little bit sad, but mostly I’m thrilled to see this brought in for a landing, and mostly because I can’t wait to hear fans’ reactions to how much they’re going to love it and how good this is. If you love the Bad Batch and if you love Star Wars, this is as good as that gets,” he shared. “And it’s just such a beautiful job done by [executive producers] Brad [Rau] and Jen [Corbett] and Dave [Filoni] and everyone involved with this, Michelle [Ang, Omega actor]. It’s been the privilege of a lifetime — of my career — to be involved with it, I must say. That’s how I feel.”
The end of the second season was a heartbreaker for fans as they saw Tech meet his tragic end. He sacrificed himself to safe the rest of the team. This was surprising as the team traditionally always finds a way out of every situation. “I’ve been through a lot of conventions over the past year, and fans are deeply bereft and stricken and holding out hope. I tell them it’s a life well-lived,” he says. He shared that he tries to comfort fan by helping them focus on the bigger picture of Tech’s final act. “It’s a soldier’s life that is admirable and heroic in all the best sense. A heroic sacrifice is the end that any soldier on the clone army would wish for. They’re trained to fight and they’re trained to win and work together and problem solve and to do the right thing. And Tech does all of those things in his final gesture that keeps the mission alive and saves his colleagues, his friends, his family. I couldn’t wish the fellow any more. For me personally and for everybody else, yes, we want him to live longer, but I wouldn’t want to dull the gesture — the gesture of his final act of heroism.”
Season 3 starts with things not going so well for the the Bad Batch. The team is splintered and how they come back together will be the initial focus of the season. “The biggest predicament is that Omega and Crosshair are in the clutches of the diabolical scientist, Dr. Royce Hemlock, and his assistant, Emerie. It’s a question of what are they going to do to Omega and will Crosshair survive this? There’s nothing good going on there, and clones are very much expendable in the eyes of the Empire,” Baker says. He also brought up Crosshair’s story arc and how he recognized the true nature of the Empire and his own mistake in joining it. This will be a part of season 3 as well. “There are a lot of fans who are very interested in that journey and rightfully so,” he says. “It’s beautifully written and it’s a very compelling story, I think.”
Baker has mentioned before that Crosshair is his favorite character in the Bad Batch. This is mainly because of the complexities of the character. Baker said that he hopes the layers and everything that Crosshair has been through will be reflected in his performance. “He is broken. I mean, he is changed, he’s turned, but he’s broken,” Baker says. “He’s imprisoned, and he is down about as far as that guy can get. And so that’s a very different situation for Crosshair. He’s no longer a free agent. He’s not free. He’s a prisoner and also an experimental subject. He is at the mercy of this machine that he miscalculated to serve at the end of Season 1 and then through Season 2, until he finally realized what the situation was. So the tone and pace of his character, the energy of his character, is a different one. It’s one of a beaten man and one who also harbors a lot of regrets and lacks hope and lacks a path forward. And that’s a very different creature from what we’ve seen of him previously.”
Crosshair isn’t the only one trapped inside the Empire as season 3 begins, however. Omega also is in Imperial custody. Baker said he loves the idea of putting the two unlikely members of the team together, much like a clone Odd Couple. “He is the most reluctant and pessimistic of the Bad Batch. By far. So you pair him with the polar opposite of that, which is Omega, who is as can-do, positive, let’s find a way, let’s have faith in ourselves, and in our collaborative ability to problem solve things. You couldn’t get more of that than you do with Omega, which to me is so gratifying and interesting about this third season, is to watch her very much come into her own. Not just as a team member, but as a leader, as someone who envisions the most daunting problem being solved and, knowing that through her faith in her good friends, that a solution can be found and will be found, and she, by golly, is going to do it.”
With all the emotions that come with the final season of The Bad Batch, Baker is confident that this season will deliver for Star Wars fans. “The third season really covers everything. I’ve got to say, having seen it now, that it is the best of the three seasons and the most satisfying on all levels of this storytelling that is the best that Star Wars can be,” he says. “I’m incredibly proud of it and really impressed. It’s so beautiful, and it’s moving and it’s meaningful. It also goes in some directions that I think that fans will not expect and that will be very welcome, and memorable in a very enduring way.”
The third and final season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch arrives on Disney+ starting on February 21, 2024. Season 3 episodes will be released on the following days:
- 2/21: Episode 301 “Confined,” Episode 302 “Paths Unknown,” Episode 303 “Shadows of Tantiss” (debut)
- 2/28: Episode 304 “A Different Approach”
- 3/6: Episode 305 “The Return”
- 3/13: Episode 306 “Infiltration” & Episode 307 “Extraction”
- 3/20: Episode 308 “Bad Territory”
- 3/27: Episode 309 “The Harbinger”
- 4/3: Episode 310 “Identity Crisis” & Episode 311 “Point of No Return”
- 4/10: Episode 312 “Juggernaut”
- 4/17: Episode 313 “Into the Breach”
- 4/24: Episode 314 “Flash Strike”
- 5/1: Episode 315 “The Cavalry Has Arrived” (finale)
Are you excited about the third and final season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch? Who is your favorite member of the team? Do you have any predictions for this season? If so, how do you think it will play out? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
