Summary
- Star Wars: The Bad Batch has inspired a new companion novel titled Sanctuary for more adventures.
- Sanctuary offers fans a richer exploration of characters and lore than the show’s episodes.
- The novel adds to the expanding Star Wars canon by bridging the gaps left by past canon changes.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch might not be coming back with any new episodes after its third-season conclusion, but that doesn’t mean that fans won’t be able to go on any more adventures with Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Omega.
The Star Wars franchise made its name in theaters with the original and prequel trilogies being massive blockbusters, but it has also seen success in other formats. For a long period, the main way fans were engaging with new Star Wars stories was via animated shows like The Clone Wars and Rebels, expanding the lore and even giving rise to Star Wars: Ahsoka, a notable part of the new Disney+ live-action era of Star Wars content. The last inheritor of this tradition was Star Wars: The Bad Batch, a show that fans really connected with, which, unfortunately, came to a timely end after its third season on Disney+.
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Since the show ended, it’s already inspired some major additions to the Star Wars franchise in companion media, and now the series is getting a more direct adaptation of its on-screen dynamics, and fans should be pleased. A new companion book for the franchise has recently been announced, with the title Star Wars: Sanctuary — A Bad Batch Novel and a detailed synopsis promising a new adventure and even more of the well-written, character-driven, interpersonal appeal that made the show great. The book, written by Lamar Giles, looks to give fans impactful storytelling like the franchise had in the past. “For my entire life the words ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…’ have represented the stepping off point from our dull everyday reality into a realm of wonder, action, adventure and joy,” Giles explained to StarWars.com. “There’s nothing dull about the work I’ve been asked to do, and it’s certainly not everyday I get a chance to help continue such a rich storytelling tradition. I was a Star Wars fan well before I was a Star Wars writer, and I’m so very grateful for both roles.”
Having a novel chronicling more adventures featuring Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Omega is a stellar idea, and there’s a case to be made that this should have come up sooner. The Acolyte, far more widely seen despite not enjoying the same clear reputation as The Bad Batch, got multiple companion books approved before the discourse around its ending had even cooled down. Furthermore, the appeal of The Bad Batch is almost guaranteed to translate better to prose than other Star Wars shows. The book could potentially even match some of the best episodes of The Bad Batch, leveraging the medium to tell a more intricately constructed story than any single episode or arc and leaning into the lack of visuals to really hone in on the emotional and mental aspects of the characters. Due to the nature of the show, these characters are unlikely to get the same sort of opportunities that Ahsoka and Ezra have on a live-action show. As such, fans who miss the characters and connections of The Bad Batch should be pretty excited for Sanctuary, and there’s hope that this book could potentially spin off into more media featuring these characters and their shared story.
All in all, Sanctuary is great news for fans of the show and even those who weren’t quite into it. Star Wars: The Bad Batch always had more wiggle room with canon than other shows, and that can go even further with a novel a year removed from the series finale. Like the old days when authors built the franchise’s expansive Legends lore through novels that built out characters introduced in the films, games, and other mainline media, projects like Sanctuary can do the same now that Disney has pushed most of those passion projects out of official canon and left large gaping holes in the timeline of the galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is available to stream on Disney+, while Sanctuary is available for preorder ahead of its August 5, 2025 release from Random House Worlds.
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Source: StarWars.com