Warning! Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 14, "War-Mantle."
In the latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an early George Lucas idea is finally paid off with familiar Ralph McQuarrie armor designs for the Empire's first stormtroopers. In the new episode, the Bad Batch receives a request from Captain Rex to rescue the Clone Commando known as Gregor who's been held against his will on the planet Daro. While there, Clone Force 99 gets their first real look at their Imperial replacements, the recruited stormtroopers that make up the bulk of the Empire's forces. However, their armor looks to be in an early and almost prototype stage, resembling the earliest pieces of concept art created for the first Star Wars film.
In the new episode, "Project War-Mantle" is underway, and the Empire is making preparations to leave Kamino after shutting down their operations and taking their research and lead scientists. Not only that, but they've been using highly skilled clone troopers such as Gregor to train their newly recruited stormtroopers who've enlisted from all over the galaxy to replace the clones. However, Gregor is trying to escape his new Imperial masters, which is where the Bad Batch comes in to attempt an extraction.
Upon their arrival to the Empire's secret military base on Daro, The Bad Batch faces off with the first stormtroopers enlisted in the days after the Republic's fall. However, they're not yet wearing the classic armor and helmets worn by the stormtroopers of the original trilogy era. Instead, they're wearing an earlier version resembling the concept work created by artist Ralph McQuarrie as envisioned by Star Wars creator George Lucas himself. In these early concept art pieces, the stormtroopers once had shields and lightsabers of their own before they were reduced to just carrying blasters, reserving the more elegant weapons for the Jedi and Sith. Regardless, it's a pretty incredible Easter egg to see these armor and helmet designs reaching the official Star Wars canon, becoming prototype armor before the standard armor designs were eventually adopted.
While using unused art and ideas from Lucas for the new stormtrooper proto-armor is pretty fun, it's not the first time showrunner Dave Filoni has integrated Mcquarrie's work, as several elements in Star Wars Rebels were directly inspired by specific pieces. For example, the series' central planet of Lothal was based on several pieces, including one that depicted Lucas' vision for the Capital City of Alderaan. Not only that, but discarded designs for R2-D2 and Chewbacca made their way to becoming the core Rebels Chopper and Zeb, both crewmembers of The Ghost piloted by Hera Syndulla.
In any case, using Mcquarrie's work in this latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a great nod to the past while providing a brand new chapter that aids in the transition between the Republic's fall and the Empire's rise. Furthermore, it's more than likely that these proto-armored stormtroopers will be seen again, seeing as how the Bad Batch's Hunter was captured himself by the episode's end. As a result, it's more than likely that a new rescue mission will be staged as the new Star Wars animated series reaches its finale on Disney+.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch release every Friday on Disney+.
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