The Bad Batch Return In New Star Wars Story Set To Make Season 3 Even More Painful

Just like their audience, Star Warsisn't quite ready to be done with Star Wars: The Bad Batchyet, as they have just announced a new story centered on Clone Force 99 - one that will make the events of season 3 even more painful. Although the animated Star Wars TV show officially ended with season 3 in 2024, Star Wars is continuing their story in a variety of different ways. This month, the first issue of their comic miniseries Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories - The Bad Batch - Ghost Agents comes out, and now, they'll also be receiving their own novel.

In an announcement on StarWars.com, this novel by Lamar Giles, titled Star Wars: Sanctuary, will take place during the events of The Bad Batch season 2, more specifically between episodes 13 "Pabu" and 14 "Tipping Point". Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Omega will be working directly with the beloved pirate Phee Genoa to help rebuild lower Pabu after the storm surge that swept away their homes, as seen in "Pabu." All of this and more are revealed in the synopsis, which Star Wars has shared in preparation for the novel's release on August 5, 2025.

The cover art for Star Wars: Sanctuary - A Bad Batch Novel, featuring Tech, Omega, Hunter, and Wrecker.

Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Omega gamble on a mission to help rebuild Pabu in this thrilling adventure for The Bad Batch.
A good soldier knows that life is all about change — whether it’s on or off the battlefield. Surviving, living, means adaptation. Hunter is well acquainted with this lesson. He’s on the run from the Empire, Echo’s off on a mission with Captain Rex, and Crosshair is . . . still Crosshair, but amidst all the change, Hunter still has Tech, Wrecker, and Omega.
And it seems that his small family might have finally found a safe place to land, far from the increasingly vigilant eyes of the Empire: Pabu. But their potential new island home is in desperate need of resources if there is any hope for the fledgling community to recover from a devastating sea wave. That’s where Phee Genoa, self-proclaimed liberator of treasures, comes in, with a couple of jobs she swears will get them the funds they need. Despite Hunter’s concern with Phee’s precarious plans, the rest of the crew is fine following her lead.
Things go wrong almost immediately, as Phee’s droid blows the crew’s cover at a high-stakes auction, and they barely make it out with the relic they’d been paid to acquire. Hunter insists they finish their first mission and deliver the relic before taking on more work, but Phee and the others push forward with a second job: ferrying a couple on the run, one of whom is due to give birth at any moment. Hunter worries what they’re risking, especially when their mysterious new passengers cling to lies and secrets that trace back to an Imperial Security Bureau officer hot on their trail.
As Hunter tries to get the crew back on a stable, safe path far, far away from anything to do with the Empire’s watchdogs, their overlapping missions only invite more danger and chaos. On the verge of failing both their desperate passengers and their community on Pabu, the Batch must remember that the only way they succeed, the only way they survive to fight another day, is by trusting each other.

What The New Bad Batch Novel Means For Star Wars

There's Still So Much Of Their Story Left To Tell

A novel being added in addition to a slate of upcoming comics seems to point towards Star Wars recognizing just how beloved and important the story of the Bad Batch really is. This is promising for any fan of The Bad Batch, as it looks like Star Wars is doing whatever they can to keep their story going as long as possible, even if they have wrapped up their animated show. There will likely be future opportunities for Clone Force 99 to return on the screen, and this novel proves there's still a lot left to tell.

This Story Will Make Tech's Death Even Harder To Deal With

His Final Days Of Peace Will Be Shown

Tech holds up his blaster and prepares to execute Plan 99 on Eriadu

What's perhaps most key about this upcoming The Bad Batch novel is its time period, which is just before Tech's tragic death in "Plan 99." This story will no doubt pour more salt into the wound of Tech's death, as it will allow viewers to see more of his bonding with Phee, Omega, and the rest of his brothers shortly before he sacrifices himself to save his family on Eriadu. While it already hurts, getting to actually see the life Tech has started to build for himself with his family on Pabu will make it hurt even worse.

Of course, that suffering will be more than worth it. Audiences have been sorely missing Tech, especially with him being entirely absent in The Bad Batch season 3, which means that any further appearances from the Batch's specialist will always be more than appreciated and treasured. Seeing as Phee references conversations she and Tech had offscreen in this exact time period during season 3, it seems likely that we'll get to actually see more of this for ourselves. It may make The Bad Batch season 3 hurt even more, but it will be a good kind of hurt.

Star Wars: Sanctuary will release on August 5, 2025.

Source: StarWars.com