At Star Wars Celebration today, Dave Filoni introduced a premiere screening for a never finished or released story arc from Star Wars: The Clone Wars – “Bad Batch.” All four episodes of the storyline were shown, though in their incomplete form – final animation was never completed, so this was all the earliest, animatic-style animation without any detailed backgrounds, moving lips and many other elements we'd have seen if it had been completed, though the vocals had all been recorded by the cast.

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The storyline is another big one for Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of all the clone troopers, as we meet the Bad Batch of the title, a foursome -- Hunter, Tech, Crosshair and Wrecker -- of Clones who came out somehow malformed (like the Clone “99” we met once before), but were then mutated further into a squad of super soldier types, sent on especially dangerous missions. These guys are all highly individualized (including their appearance, as they do not share the same exact face) in both their skill set and armor, with an almost G.I Joe type feel to them. There’s also a hint of a Republic Commando type crew here as well.It’s also no secret (don’t yell about spoilers – Filoni himself revealed this nearly a year ago!) that this would be the storyline to explain what happened to Echo, the Clone Trooper who Filoni explained was not dead, as previously believed. I won’t say exactly what happened to Echo or how he is found, but it’s a pretty intriguing plot point, and like much of Clone Wars, has a disturbing component to it.Even in the rough animation form we saw it in, “Bad Batch” was a lot of fun, with some great action beats that had the audience cheering. There are some bat-like creatures that come into play that are really well used, including in a standout action scene that begins on a small bridge. Also, Mace Windu, while not a huge character in this arc, has an incredibly entertaining speech at one point that is one of the character’s best moments. Suffice to say, the episodes were very well received and it was hard not to wish they could be completed, given how effective they were in this form.In the Q&A that followed, Filoni couldn’t firmly say whether “Bad Batch” will be put on StarWars.com eventually, as one other unfinished Clone Wars storyline was last year – but he seemed to lean towards it being highly likely it would be, saying, with a grin, “I don’t know. It would be great. I’m sure it will… possibly.”Asked why they don’t release all the unfinished episodes, he said many factors were at play, with some episodes being further along than others to the point where he felt comfortable showing them. He noted that he really didn’t want to release any episodes where the final vocals hadn’t at least been recorded, since he felt the voice cast added so much to the experience.Baker was present for the Q&A and said, “I remember how terrified I was going into this!,” when asked his reaction to the Bad Batch storyline. He said his challenge is usually to make sure the different clones sound at least somewhat distinct, but here he had to remember that while he could go into broader places with the Bad Batch’s voices, they still had to sound at least somewhere at the core as though they were clones and it was a challenge to retain that.Writer Brent Friedman, who wrote the Bad Batch arc, recalled, “George [Lucas] had a very specific vision of this motley crew, “ and that, “As we were breaking the stories, Dave was sketching the characters. I already saw their personalities and could hear their voices.”Another Clone Wars writer, Matt Michnovetz, wrote a second arc for the Bad Batch character that was in the works for the series when the show was cancelled, also featuring Yoda and Wookiees, Chewbacca included. He said that often while making The Clone Wars, “George would come up with these classic movie references,” and with the Bad Bunch, “He came in and wanted to do a version of the Dirty Dozen with clones.”Filoni revealed the influence for most of the Bad Bunch characters (with the exception of “Tech”), saying, “Hunter is Billy from Predator. Crosshair is more Clint Eastwood - Cad Bane if he’s a clone.” As for the super strong Wrecker, Filoni joked he “Is about as close to the Hulk as well get,” saying his Marvel-adoring crew, “loved Wrecker, because this is them mini-Avengering.”