Television series
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
An animated Star Wars series that follows Clone Force 99 — a squad of genetically off-model clone troopers, each built around one exaggerated skill — as the Republic curdles into the Empire around them. It's episodic bounty-hunting and heist-of-the-week stuff early on, but it steadily thickens into a story about obsolescence, loyalty, and what happens to soldiers once the war that made them useful ends. Family drama wearing a blaster holster.
If you liked this
Star Wars: The Clone Wars2008
The Bad Batch are introduced here, and this show built the emotional and political groundwork — clone identity, Order 66's horror, the Jedi's slow moral erosion — that the spinoff pays off.
But Seven seasons is a huge ask, and the animation and pacing take a while to hit their stride.
Andor2022
Same galaxy, same rising Empire, but filtered through espionage and bureaucratic cruelty instead of adventure — it shows the machine that's grinding the Bad Batch's world down from the other side of the desk.
But Slow-burn and dialogue-heavy; if you came for laser fights and quips, this will feel like a different show entirely.
Star Wars: Rebels2014
Another scrappy crew scraping by under early Imperial rule, with the same mix of episodic capers and creeping dread, plus overlapping characters and continuity.
But Aimed a little younger and brighter in tone — it doesn't sit in discomfort the way later Bad Batch does.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Never Let Me Go2010
Both are about manufactured beings confronting their own planned obsolescence — the Batch's fear of being replaced by 'regular' clones, played here as unbearable, unadorned tragedy instead of adventure.
A hushed, devastating drama about people raised for a single purpose, quietly realising the world was never going to let them be anything else.
But There's no action, no galaxy to save — just grief, restraint, and an ending that offers no rescue.
More like this (8)
The Mandalorian2019
A lone operator with a found family and a moral code forged in a crumbling galaxy — same tenderness under the armour, same episodic bounty-job structure giving way to bigger arcs.
But More live-action grit, less ensemble banter — if you love the Batch's group dynamic, this is quieter and lonelier.
Firefly2002
A ragtag crew of misfits running jobs on the margins of an empire, bound by loyalty rather than blood — the found-family engine at full throttle, with sharper dialogue than you'd expect.
But Cancelled after one season, so you're signing up for a story that stops mid-thought.
Guardians of the Galaxy2014
Genetically engineered outcasts and mercenaries who become each other's family — same soft, weird heart wrapped in blaster fire and banter.
But Glossier, funnier, and far less interested in political consequence than Bad Batch eventually becomes.
Avatar: The Last Airbender2005
Animated, aimed at kids, and yet unafraid to sit with genocide, complicity, and what a soldier owes their conscience — proof the format can carry real weight.
But Different genre entirely — elemental martial arts fantasy, not sci-fi squad action — so the connection is tonal, not surface-level.
Cowboy Bebop1998
Episodic bounty-hunter jobs slowly reveal a crew running from their pasts and the systems that made them — gorgeous, melancholy, and structurally close cousin to the Batch's arc.
But Jazz-scored anime melancholy is a very different flavour than Star Wars swagger, and some episodes wander.
Voltron: Legendary Defender2016
A misfit squad, each with a specialised role, banding together against an empire — lighter and younger, but the team chemistry and mecha-adventure fun scratch a similar itch.
But Aimed squarely at a younger audience and lacks the moral shadows the Batch eventually leans into.
The Dirty Dozen1967
Same DNA: a specialist squad built and discarded by a military hierarchy that sees them as disposable tools rather than people — the Batch's core wound, decades earlier and without the animation's softening.
A gruff commander assembles a squad of criminal misfits for a suicide mission, each valued for one specific, brutal skill — the original mismatched-squad war movie, and it still swaggers.
But Dated in its politics and pacing, and considerably more cynical about whether these men matter to the people who use them.
The A-Team1983
The same one-skill-per-member squad structure and mercenary-family setup, played completely straight for trash and fun instead of political tragedy — the genre's id where Bad Batch is its conscience.
A wrongly-accused squad of ex-soldiers, each with one loud signature skill, running weekly capers against corrupt authority with maximum explosions and minimal consequences.
But Pure, cheesy 80s pulp — no serialized stakes, no moral weight, just a formula repeated with a grin.
People
Cast
Writing
- Dave FiloniCreator
Production
- Alex SpotswoodAssociate Producer
- Carrie BeckCo-Executive Producer
- Athena PortilloExecutive Producer
- Brad RauExecutive Producer
- Dave FiloniExecutive Producer
- Jennifer CorbettExecutive Producer
- Josh RimesProducer