Star Wars Fans Praise George Lucas For The Bad Batch's Creative Designs

While Disney's efforts to satisfy fans with "Star Wars" movies have been rather hit or miss, their television productions on Disney+ have arguably been the franchise's new claim to fame, with such hits as "The Mandalorian" and "Andor" receiving significant praise from fans and critics alike. Among this pocket of fresh "Star Wars" content is the animated series, "Star Wars: The Bad Batch." Released in 2021, the show acts as a spin-off and follow-up to the popular "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and follows a team of elite, genetically-mutated clone troopers (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) as they take on a variety of daring missions in the aftermath of the Clone Wars. 

With its gripping action and beautiful animation, the show's first season was met with largely positive reviews (via Rotten Tomatoes) and found itself among the most-streamed content on the week of its release (via Media Play News). With Season 2 slated to arrive in January 2023, fans are already thrilled to see how this world will expand further. Some sharp-eyed viewers of one of the second season's most recent teasers have been able to pinpoint a long-forgotten idea that the show seems to be resurrecting. 

Before the abrupt cancellation of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" in 2013, the team intended to have an arc that would have seen Yoda and the Bad Batch team up with the Wookies. It would have also explored the Wookie planet Kashyyyk, where the grumbling giants would be seen riding the backs of quadrupedal monkey-like creatures (via Murphy's Multiverse). For some time, only early animation concepts of the idea seemed to survive.

But it seems that "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" Season 2 is resurrecting this concept, as we see the Wookies in a new teaser riding creatures with practically identical designs. A comment from @matthewshort6912 on the teaser pointed this out, saying, "Dave [Filoni] said sadly almost 10 years ago about George [Lucas'] design for the monkey things on Kashyyyk at the untold CW panel ... I'm so happy to [see] these George creations be fulfilled. He may be gone from the franchise but his ideas still keep it fresh."  

Others expressed excitement to see the beasts in action, such as @tyrexthecreaturedesigner who said, "Absolutely love the creature designs!" Similarly, @starminer14 commented, "Love that they are finally using some of the stuff from the Kashyykk arc ... that didn't get produced."

George Lucas' relationship with Disney has not always been the smoothest (via Insider), so seeing his concepts used can give fans hope that his shadow over the iconic franchise will never fade.