Star Wars: The Bad Batch Showrunners Looked To The N64 Podracing Game For Inspiration In Season 2 [Exclusive]
The "Star Wars" TV shows, particularly the animated ones, are arguably the purest expression of George Lucas' desire to make a sci-fi movie inspired by the serials he watched growing up. With these shows, the franchise is able to explore a vast variety of stories, themes, and genres. We've got zombie horror episodes in "The Clone Wars," a rock opera in "Star Wars Visions," and more. Likewise, these shows have introduced meaningful additions to the lore, like with the "Ghost of Mortis" episodes and the in-canon introduction of Darth Bane, all while fixing a lot of the problems with the prequel trilogy.
Granted, they are still TV shows, ones aimed at younger audiences too, so they can't be all plot or lore drops. We also get downtime episodes and standalone stories, ones with side quests and silly moments, which nevertheless help make the galaxy feel lived-in and with stories that carry on beyond the main plot. "The Clone Wars" had several episodes focused on R2 and 3PO just going on adventures, while "Heroes on Both Sides" showed us how Sidious played and fooled both sides of the war.
"The Bad Batch" is carrying on this tradition. This show answers some big questions about the transition between the Republic and the Empire, showing us the beginning of the darkest period of the franchise's history, how the clones turned into stormtroopers, and more. And yet, the show also gives us some rather cool standalone episodes, like a racing one inspired by the Nintendo 64 podracing game.
Space Formula One
After an exciting heist premiere, and a rather poignant special ops episode that brought Commander Cody back, episode four of "The Bad Batch" is more of a downtime episode. The episode revolves around the batch helping out their handler, Cid, who is in financial trouble due to betting on races.
The racing circuit, unsurprisingly, is reminiscent of a rather polarizing part of the "Star Wars" prequels — podracing. Both hated and beloved, praised for its visuals and criticized for slowing down the film, the podracing subplot in "The Phantom Menace" is Lucas returning to one of his earliest passions: fast cars. Say what you will about podracing, but in the film, it looks incredibly cool, particularly thanks to the use of surround sound placing you inside the race.
"The Bad Batch" replicates this. Story-wise, it's a good opportunity for the batch and Cid to grow closer, but visually, it rules. Rather than pods, the show uses speeders. The vast, empty deserts of Tatooine are replaced with closed spaces and neon lights, which became the key to this version of racing in the galaxy far, far away.
In an interview with /Film, supervising director Brad Rau discussed setting the race in tunnels in order to show high-speed backgrounds flying by, with ads on walls "kind of like in a Formula One race." According to Rau, they took inspiration from the podracing scene in "The Phantom Menace," but also from a source familiar to many millennial "Star Wars" fans: the Nintendo 64 game. "We were looking at that a lot," Rau added. "Played a lot of that back in the day."
Now THIS is podracing
The actual race is exhilarating, aided by the unique visual style of "The Bad Batch" which combines the cartoonish designs of "The Clone Wars" with live-action-inspired lighting and coloring that really makes the colors pop.
As Rau tells it, they looked at live-action racing films for inspiration.
"[We looked at] tons and tons and tons of footage to figure out what the difference is when you have a certain camera with a certain lens on the side of the racer versus tracking in front. And we just played with the whole thing so we could have maximum octane and just play with it all the way through. It was so fun."
As for the story, this season of "The Bad Batch" is giving each character their own episode focused on them. This one is all about Tech, a relatively calmer and more reserved clone who doesn't take chances, and is more calculated. In this episode, however, he learns to take big gambles — albeit calculated ones — by choosing to join the race himself after Cid loses her driver.
"It's not just about Omega having fun, we got to see Tech have fun," showrunner and executive producer Jennifer Corbett told us. "And we wanted to, in different episodes, shine a light on the characters a little bit more and get to know their personalities beyond season one."
"The Bad Batch" is slowly showing us how the galaxy changes for the worse now that the Empire is in charge, the cruelty, the oppression that's spreading out. But this episode shows that even when most things change, some things stay the same — namely, podracing.
"The Bad Batch" streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.