Alongside a new teaser featuring the surprise return of Asajj Ventress and a poster, Disney+ revealed Star Wars: The Bad Batch will officially return for its third and final season with a three-episode premiere on February 21, 2024.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch's third season will consist of 15 episodes and will see its finale air on May 1, 2024, with 'The Cavalry Has Arrived.'
"In the epic final season of 'Star Wars: The Bad Batch,' the Batch will have their limits tested in the fight to reunite with Omega as she faces challenges of her own inside a remote Imperial science lab," the official description reads. "With the group fractured and facing threats from all directions, they will have to seek out unexpected allies, embark on dangerous missions, and muster everything they have learned to free themselves from the Empire."
As for the trailer itself, there was perhaps no more surprising moment than when Asajj Ventress appeared at the end with her yellow lightsaber. Ventress is a fan-favorite character who played a big role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but her return is a shock as she died during the events of the novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple.
Ventress began her life as a Jedi Padawan, but she fell to the Dark Side and became an assassin of the Sith and worked closely with Count Dooku. Dooku would end up betraying her, and that near-death experience caused her to leave the Sith and become a Nightsister and then a bounty hunter.
She lived that life for a while before her paths crossed with Jedi Master Quinlan Vos and the two fell in love. Their love story did not have a happy ending, however, as Ventress ended up sacrificing herself to save Vos after he fell to the Dark Side courtesy of Count Dooku.
After her sacrifice, a redeemed Vos and Obi-Wan took Ventress' body back to her homeworld of Dathomir where she was laid to rest. It seemed as though that was the end of her story, but this trailer proves otherwise. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised as Darth Maul, another Zabrak from Dathomir, was also resurrected from the dead!
For those worried about canon, Brad Rau, supervising director and one of the executive producers of The Bad Batch, took to StarWars.com to reassure fans that these stories will all line up.
“We love Asajj Ventress," Rau said. "She’s a character that we’ve been wanting to tell more stories about. We don't want to spoil anything, but want fans to know that any new storytelling with Ventress will align with the events of Star Wars: Dark Disciple.”
The trailer had much more for fans of that galaxy far, far away, as it also gave us more Emperor Palpatine, a glimpse of Cad Bane, Wanda Sykes' Phee, and much more.
For more, check out our look at the finale of Star Wars: The Bad Batch's second season and what else we can expect from Star Wars in 2024.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
