In “Cornered,” the Bad Batch clones find a bounty hunter on their heels who is looking for Omega. Stuck on the planet Pantora looking for fuel, they’re getting hemmed in on all sides as the Empire continues to confirm its power over the systems formerly represented by the Republic. This episode features a wide variety of returning characters, most notably Fennec Shand from The Mandalorian making her animated debut, as well quite a few easter eggs. Take a look at all the Star Wars references and connections we found this week:
Fennec Shand and Ming-Na Wen
– Fennec Shand debuted as a live-action character in The Mandalorian. She appears in several episodes, first in the season one episode “The Gunslinger” and as a more regular member of the cast in season two. Ming-Na Wen both performs the live action role and provides her voice on The Bad Batch. Stream your Star Wars favorites right here! Fennec’s competent and cocky, the latter getting the best of her when she bet on having talked Toro into not killing her. As her willingness to hunt kids indicates, she doesn’t seem to have any qualms about cruelty as part of her job. However, she’s not sadistic or invested in violence for its own sake outside of her work, freeing and dismissing a Twi’lek slave in Jabba’s palace who was simply an innocent bystander to her and Boba Fett’s arrival. Now indebted to Boba Fett, and enjoying her role among the galaxy’s premiere bounty hunters, Shand joined Din Djarin in his quest to rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon in the season two finale. – The season two stinger shows Fennec and Boba setting up shop in Jabba the Hutt’s abandoned palace. Unsurprisingly, she’ll be a big part of the upcoming live-action show The Book of Boba Fett. Not much is known about the new series at this point, but it’s supposed to premiere in December 2021, before season three of The Mandalorian starts in 2022.
Pantora
– The moon Pantora is easily confused with its planet Orto Plutonia, which was the site of the system’s first appearance in The Clone Wars. This snowy planet was contested by two different species, the native Talz and attacking Pantorans.
– Many Pantorans decorate their faces with red or yellow markings to denote familial associations. Those aren’t natural colorations. All Pantorans have blue skin and yellow eyes.
– The most famous Pantoran character is young senator Riyo Chuchi, who helped negotiate the peace between the Talz and the Pantorans on The Clone Wars. She appeared on the show a few more times as a background character, including during Ahsoka Tano‘s dismissal from the Jedi Order.
– Pantorans look a lot like Chiss, the blue-skinned species popularized by Grand Admiral Thrawn. As such, they’re one of the most well-known aliens outside the films. Pantorans can be distinguished from Chiss by their eyes, since Chiss eyes are red.
Aliens, Creatures, and More
– Many aliens in the crowd scenes on Pantora will be familiar to movie viewers at least somewhat. The Aqualish cab driver’s species comes from the very beginning, in A New Hope, as does the three-eyed Gran. – The docking official is a Sullustan, a species first introduced in Return of the Jedi. – The round, doglike animals are voorpaks, which appeared on screen quite a lot on Star Wars Resistance. That’s not where they debuted, however; they were technically part of the game Disney Infinity 3.0 first. – The alien Omega bumps into is a Gotal, another A New Hope cantina creature. Leaning into a pun on the name (in the credits this character is listed as “Goatal”), he makes a goat bleating sound as he talks. – Grey Griffin, the voice of Padmé Amidala, Asajj Ventress, Shaak Ti, and others on Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars series, returns as the protocol droid CG-67. She has performed a myriad of roles in Star Wars cartoons and video games, including as Naare, a main character in LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures.
