Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Project Necromancer and Omega Explained

Star Wars is back on Disney Plus with the third and final season of The Bad Batch, Dave Filoni’s current animated series. Season 2 ended bleakly for the protagonists with Tech – presumably – sacrificing himself to allow the team to escape from a botched mission and Omega being caught by the Empire. In Season 3, we find Omega imprisoned in a secret imperial research facility that primarily focuses on cutting edge cloning technology. Filoni aptly named this base Tantiss, which is a reference to Mount Tantiss, Palpatine’s hidden treasure vault from the old canon.

Palpatine’s visit to Tantiss and subsequent tour of the facility led by Hemlock and Nala Se finally revealed what the scientists are working on: Project Necromancer. It’s a name we’ve heard more than once in Star Wars media created by Filoni and Jon Favreau – and that’s by design: Project Necromancer is the key to their mission of making the messy sequel trilogy make some sense.

But what exactly is Project Necromancer and why is Omega so important for it?

Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Project Necromancer explained

Remember when Poe Dameron lazily explained Palpatine’s return in Episode 9 with some vague talk about dark science and secrets only the Sith knew? That’s what Project Necromancer is.

Large parts of The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian contain clues and hints about Necromancer running in the background (with an explicit name drop in the latest season of The Mandalorian) and the third episode of The Bad Batch Season 3 has finally given us our first deep look into the project during Palpatine’s visit.

Project Necromancer, as the name suggests, is all about securing Palpatine’s resurrection. The Emperor wants a clone of himself so that he can transfer his spirit into it should his current body die – in the old canon, this Force technique was known as Essence Transfer.

The heavily guarded vault Hemlock and Nala Se show Palpatine is likely where his clones are being kept. However, there seems to be one big problem with the cloning technology of the time: Clones seem to have a much lower amount of Midichlorians in their body than the original host. For a powerful Force user such Palpatine, this would obviously be a problem, since a lower count of Midichlorians (referred to as M-Count by scientists in The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian) would severely restrict his abilities. This complication is a good explanation for why there has never been an attempt to take over the galaxy with a clone army of Force wielders.

So what Project Necromancer must ultimately achieve is not just a simple body clone of the Emperor, but one that has the same – or an even higher – Midichlorian count. And that’s where Omega comes into play.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Omega’s importance explained

While Filoni has been playing it fast and loose with people awakening to Force powers all of a sudden – Sabine Wren being the latest example in Ahsoka – Omega so far hasn’t shown any special connection with the Force. However, as Nala Se seems to have known all along, there is something special about Omega that sets her apart from other clones nonetheless.

The Empire is testing the blood of all the clones imprisoned in Tantiss. Though it could simply be looking for clones that somehow gained Force powers through a genetic mutation, I think it’s far more likely that they’re searching for a clone that has retained their genetic host Jango Fett’s original M-Count, i.e. that has randomly achieved the goal of Project Necromancer through a genetic mutation.

Omega's test showing a match for Jango Fett's M-Count would explain her importance, as studying that particular clone might then unlock the key to progressing Project Necromancer and creating a clone of Palpatine that retains his full Force potential.

Related: Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 Watch Times Revealed