Star Wars: The Bad Batch actor Dee Bradley Baker teases how season 2 'is better than ever'
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WARNING: This article contains light spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2.
Anyone who has seen — or heard — Dee Bradley Baker at work knows he's an acting marvel. Having voiced multiple clone characters on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, he's almost a one-man band on the spin-off series Star Wars: The Bad Batch, where he voices the five main clones and a number of ancillary ones as well.
The Bad Batch, which kicked off its second season Wednesday on Disney+, continues the adventures of the former Clone Force 99, an elite military squad who have gone on the run after Order 66 eliminated most of the Jedi and allowed the formation of the Galactic Empire. Alongside the young clone Omega (voiced by Michelle Ang), Batch members Hunter, Tech, Echo, and Wrecker (all voiced by Bradley) are trying to find their place in a rapidly changing galaxy, and the new season sees them still going on missions for Cid (Cheers star Rhea Perlman) while arguing among themselves about whether they should be doing more to fight the emerging Empire or continuing to lie low to protect Omega from Imperial clutches.
Ahead of the season 2 launch, Bradley sat down with EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast to talk about what it was like to revisit Clone Wars fan favorites Captain Rex and Commander Cody, how the storyline for estranged Batch member Crosshair made him his favorite to voice, and whether he's up for a cameo in a live-action Star Wars show. Read on for his answers, or listen to his entire interview on the latest episode of Dagobah Dispatch.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What can you tell us about this new season of The Bad Batch?
DEE BRADLEY BAKER: This season is better than ever, I would say. It's more interesting to see how Omega is coming online with her powers as a team member, but also as she plays out her life, as she finds her place with her family and within this larger context of what's playing out with the rise of the Empire.
It's also interesting to see what's going on with the Bad Batch, where they're going to, how they're going to play out these larger forces that are at play, that are really aligned against them. So do you run? Do you just find a safe way to maintain this, or do you turn and fight? Do you join with the resistance that Rex and the others are starting to formulate? So these are very big issues that are playing out with them, and they play out with such spectacular fun and heart-rending detail in season 2. It's really more of all of the best of what season 1 had, I think.
Lucasfilm Ltd. Tech, Hunter, Omega, and Echo on 'Star Wars: The Bad Batch'
You mentioned Rex. Where do we find him in this season?
Rex is always, he's a rock, isn't he? He is ever dependable, ever fair-minded, and even-keeled. He always is part of solving it, and he's persistent in how he goes about engaging with it. And so it's wonderful to see this guy who's seen the worst of it and has been through the worst and has survived it, and finds it within himself to make the heroic choice to dive back into this and to start to push back for the right reasons for the just cause. So this is sort of a bellwether character, I think, one that heralds the moral decisions of how to live life that the Bad Batch, all of them, Crosshair included, are coming up against in season 2.
And by the way, after watching through the 14 episodes — the last two I didn't see yet — but for my money now, what Crosshair is going through and what he endures to me, I think he might be my favorite now.
That's really interesting. I was going to ask who your favorite was.
His plight and his peril and his journey is a really fascinating one. And I really think fans, in that "Outpost" episode in particular and what that sets in play, they're really going to take a whole new look at this guy. It's very exciting.
I definitely thought that where Crosshair was going was really fascinating. One of the other big surprises — and we just saw this in the trailer — was seeing Cody again. Rex managed to resist his inhibitor chip, but Cody didn't, and I alway thought that's the tragedy of Cody. How was it returning to Cody and examining where he is after Order 66 and the regret that he's feeling?
Well, this episode with Cody is something that needed to happen, and I think it's something that fans need to see and will want to see. He's always been very much a fan favorite, even though he wasn't highlighted all that much. Even in the Clone Wars series. But here he is front and center with the conundrum of what is playing out and where he stands with the side that he is still a part of. And it's a fascinating story, and I've got to say, without talking about it too much directly, but it's a good indicator of a story told in an interesting and innovative way where the most impactful moment of it, you didn't even see, it wasn't even spoken. You learn about it after the fact, and then you put it together, what has actually happened. And that's the story that plays out that makes that Cody's story there so interesting and compelling and, you know, in a way kind of heartbreaking for me.
Lucasfilm Ltd. Commander Cody makes an appearance on 'The Bad Batch' after the events of Order 66
Yeah, I really agree with that. I was so glad we got to see him again. You've voiced so many clones at this point, and I know you just do them one after another. I was watching you at Star Wars Celebration just flipping between them. Do you ever just accidentally do the wrong voice because you're going too quickly? Do you just start as Hunter and then go, "Oh no, I'm supposed to be Wrecker"?
Sure, sometimes, I occasionally will do that in a script, but not very often. But I just get so caught up in the words and it feels like I know the scene. But sometimes, yeah, I'm talking Wrecker when I should be talking Tech. The thing is that they normally speak so differently. That rarely happens because it's written so that each is plainly a different character with a different attitude. And you know, Tech is not gonna say, "Boom!" That's gonna be Wrecker. That's true. And there's lots of other variations of that. So the script itself — even as we burn through it — usually keeps me on the track.
That's good to know. Do you ever wreck your voice by the end of this? I marvel at your ability to go back and forth. At the end of the day are you like, "I need a cup of tea"?
If Wrecker's fighting a lot, then I might need to put that at the end of the session. But generally speaking, we're okay to move through it, but it's only if Wrecker goes through a lot of agony and pain, then we may have to rearrange the recording order a little bit.
Jesse Grant/Getty Images Dee Bradley Baker at Star Wars Celebration in 2022
Some of your Clone Wars compatriots have made live-action cameos. I know Matt Lanter was in The Mandalorian. Is there any plan for you to pop up in one of the live-action shows?
There's no plan afoot that I know. I suppose that could happen someday. But it's interesting, my career is one of invisibility, where my focus is on what I create in the acting performance that I create, but it's not attached to me being visibly present or recognized or acknowledged. And I don't mind that. It's weird as a voice actor, my job in a sense is to be invisible. That if I'm doing my job properly, I disappear. And I'm totally okay with that. That said, it certainly would be fun to do something on camera, although on camera, you've got to be there in person and you have to memorize lines and sit in the trailer. I'm spoiled as a voice actor. The lifestyle is very appealing. I get to hang out in here, you know.
As someone who's been working from home for three years, I totally understand that delight.
So I'm a voice actor who's okay with anonymity and invisibility. People say hello to me and may know me at a convention maybe. But otherwise, I'm all right. And I'm satisfied with the wonderful shows that I get to collaborate in and the acting challenge of being these characters that I could not do if I were on camera. I'd be doing the one character if it's on camera. So I'm happy.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
To hear more from Dee Bradley Baker, check out his full interview on the latest episode of EW's Dagobah Dispatch, where you can also hear from the likes of Diego Luna, Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Pedro Pascal, and more.
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