The Clone Wars may be over, but as is always the case in the Star Wars universe, nothing ever really ends. Today, Disney announced a new animated spin-off of The Clone Wars called The Bad Batch, focusing on the eponymous group of elite clone commandos that were first introduced in the final season of the parent show. According to a press release, the series will take place in the “immediate aftermath” of the Clone Wars—that’s the war, not the show—meaning it will be after Palpatine issued Order 66 and turned the clones against the Jedi, which should provide some kind of interesting tone at least. (Post-Order 66 clones previously popped up in Star Wars Rebels, so it’s not totally new ground, but this does take place before that.) Specifically, Bad Batch is about the members of the squad taking on “daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.”
So it’s a “what does a person who was literally born to be a soldier do when the war is over?” story, set against the backdrop of that ever-fruitful Star Wars era between the prequels and the original trilogy—a time period that also gave us Rogue One, Solo, the aforementioned Rebels, the Jedi: Fallen Order video game, the The Force Unleashed video games (which are no longer canonical), and probably dozens of books and comics that also may or may not be canonical. The show comes from Clone Wars mastermind Dave Filoni, naturally, but there’s no mention in the press release of Ahsoka Tano, that show’s most lasting creation and de facto main character.
Presumably that’s because specifically mentioning whether or not she’ll be in this would deprive Disney and Filoni of the chance to constantly offer coy teases about whether or not she’ll make an appearance, but c’mon, would a Dave Filoni Star Wars thing really be a Dave Filoni Star Wars thing if Ahsoka didn’t stop by at least once to remind everyone of how great she is? Either way, Bad Batch will come to Disney+ in 2021.