Are The Bad Batch’s Decommissioned Clones About To Become The Mandalorian’s Dark Troopers?

This story contains spoilers for The Bad Batch.

We’re in the endgame now, as The Bad Batch Season 2 has just two episodes left. Teasing that Echo, Hunter, Tech, and Wrecker will have another reunion with their defected brother, Crossshair (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), we expect things to go down on Mount Tantiss. 

Despite a glimmer of Crosshair’s heroic streak in the episode “Tipping Point,” there’s a wild theory that the story seals his fate with a twist worthy of Order 66. What is Doctor Royce Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) planning, and does it doom Crosshair to become the galaxy’s first Dark Trooper? 

What are Dark Troopers?

Once relegated to Legends canon, Dark Troopers were introduced in LucasArts’ Star Wars: Dark Forces from 1995 and served as the video game’s hardest enemies. The brainchild of General Rom Mohc, Dark Troopers are effectively souped-up battle droids with Stormtrooper-inspired armor. Writer Justin Chin told PC Gamer, “Instead of just beefing up the Stormtroopers, I designed them to be more efficient. I wanted them to be more terrifying, more omnipotent.” 

There are three different phases, with Phase 1 looking like a Terminator endoskeleton, Phase 2 being artificially intelligent droids with jump packs and assault cannons, and Phase 3 being an actual suit worn by Mohc in the final battle against Kyle Katarn. Dark Troopers were rejigged for Disney’s canon, with their live-action debut coming in The Mandalorian Season 2. 

Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) personal army powered up aboard his ship and resembled the Phase 3 Dark Troopers from Dark Forces. Viewers never got to see beneath their helmets, and with the Season 2 finale largely focusing on the arrival of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Dark Troopers have largely been forgotten…until now. 

In canon, Dark Troopers were introduced in the Star Wars: Commander mobile game and referred to as “Phase II” during the Battle for Tatooine. There’s been no reference to the presumed Phase I, nor have they been given an origin story. Phase II suits were worn by humans and resembled the DT-series sentry droids. The DT’s were inspired by the Legends Dark Troopers and tie things together by previously appearing in The Bad Batch. 

Phase Zero Troopers and The Bad Batch 

An obscure piece of Star Wars history features “Phase Zero” Dark Troopers in 2004’s Star Wars: Battlefront game. Here, the original iteration of Dark Troopers were retired Clone War veterans who had up to 70% of their bodies replaced with cybernetics. They were created with the same technology that turned a charred Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader.

Although effective in battle, the Phase Zero Dark Troopers couldn’t come to terms with being Frankenstein’s monsters hybrid, leading to a high suicide rate that shuttered the program. This all ties into The Bad Batch because of Crosshair’s current situation under the care of Doctor Hemlock. Remembering the Phase Zero Dark Troopers were forcibly recruited toward the start of the Galactic Empire, the timelines marry up with Hemlock being an adaptation of Mohc. 

The Bad Batch’s latest episode features a cameo from Governor Tarkin (Stephen Stanton), discussing what to do with the wayward clones. Hemlock warns decommissioning them won’t work and gives an ominous tease, saying, “I can deal with them in other ways.” There’s also the wink that Hemlock works for the Advanced Science Division and was expelled from the Republic due to his “unauthorized and unorthodox experiments.” 

Whether forcing them to build the Death Star like what happens in Andor’s Narkina 5 facility, or something more sinister, the experimental nature of Hemlock’s work on Weyland suggests the latter is going on.

What is Plan 99?

The Bad Batch Season 2 finale is called “Plan 99,” which fans have speculated could be code for “sacrifice.” Then again, if the title refers to the work of the Empire instead of Clone Force 99, Plan 99 could be Hemlock’s mysterious proposition for the veteran Republic Troopers. Remember, Tarkin told him to present his clone solution at an upcoming summit. 

As the Bad Batch doesn’t know where Crosshair and Hemlock are, the latter could send a Dark Trooper-ised Crosshair after Omega, similar to how The Mandalorian’s Dark Troopers hunted down Grogu. Going against the idea, Episode 14 ends with Crosshair once again strapped up to an IT-O Interrogator instead of being transformed into a Dark Trooper. 

Apart from an outcast clone appearing in Obi-Wan Kenobi, we don’t see the Galactic Republic outcasts much beyond this point of the timeline. It’s led to plenty of theories about what happens to the former Clone Troopers, and while we don’t imagine all of Clone Force 99 will be retrofitted into Dark Troopers, losing Crosshair fits the bill. Having Hunter and co. face off against a Dark Trooper in the finale – only to learn its Crosshair – would be a heartbreaking twist.

The idea that the Bad Batch Season 2 finale will be a showdown between the team and Dark Trooper Crosshair is also a suitably tragic way for the complex character to bow out. Even though Crosshair’s Dark Trooper demise is purely speculation, don’t expect everyone to get a happy ending on Pabu as we head into the inevitable The Bad Batch Season 3.