Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2's release frame is in a state of flummox. Lucasfilm originally announced the sophomore run to the hit animated series would debuted this fall during Celebration, with all indicators pointing a September 28 premiere. But the plan has seemingly changed, as the series was omitted from the September lineup of Disney+ releases.
Nearly every Star Wars streaming title not named The Mandalorian has had a scheduling reshuffle, and The Bad Batch appears to be no exception. With Andor being pushed back to a three-episode premiere on September 21, many have speculated that Lucasfilm is holding Bad Batch back a bit to create more separation between the year's final shows.
But that delay could far more significant than anyone expected. A new rumor suggests that The Bad Batch's second season may not be happening in 2022 at all, but rather on the flip side of the new year.
Bad Batch Season 2 Rumored for January 2023 Release
A new listing on disn.pl has The Bad Batch Season 2 debuting in all regions on January 4, 2023. The information was retrieved from scanned code on Disney+.
This serves as a direct contradiction to a since-removed post by On The Red Carpet shared via Disney+ Info, which stated that the season is still planned for a September 28 release.
Is the January Release Date Real?
Talk of The Bad Batch Season 2's release date has been a head-spinner. After months of uncertainty, any doubts about the September 28 premiere were seemingly put to bed recently. With the disn.pl listing now thrown into the equation, identifying the release without further official word has become an impossible task.
Dropping the series on September 28 seemed entirely plausible when Andor was initially scheduled to debut at the end of August, but the show's pivot to a September 21 premiere makes for a crunch. Scheduling Disney+ releases has become a juggling between the various Star Wars and Marvel projects on the horizon, with avoiding internal competition being paramount.
Still, a delay of four months seems a bit egregious. Andor is on track to finish its first season of streaming in late November, leaving an open window for the final month and a half of the year for The Bad Batch. At some point, Tales of the Jedi figures to be in the mix as well, but the anthology of shorts could end up being a single-day release.
Unless the series isn't finished, a January release makes little sense. There's bound to be Star Wars overlap eventually, be it with Andor and The Bad Batch or the latter intersecting with The Mandalorian Season 3, which is slated for February 2023.
One thing's for sure: Clone Force 99 isn't returning to screens this month. Lucasfilm may have a spotty history with marketing, but the company has never dropped a project in 20 days without any promotion whatsoever. While a January release would be a painful wait, it may be what fans have to accept when an official announcement will surely come from D23 this weekend.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 will debut on Disney+... eventually.
STAR WARS Writer
