Star Wars: The Bad Batch will continue with production on season 3 despite studio closure, according to the show's lead director of cinematography.
Joe Laron, the director of cinematography, lighting, and FX, took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify the show's fate following Lucasfilm's closure of its Singapore branch of the Industrial Light and Magic production company, which has worked on animated shows like The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. According to Laron, the upcoming third season of Clone Wars spinoff The Bad Batch and the recent Tales of the Jedi is still set for production, as the studio in charge of those projects no longer operates out of Asia.
According to Disney, Singapore's ILM studio was shut down due to "economic factors" that required the company to downsize. The studio employed more than 300 people at the time of its closure, and Disney is reportedly offering opportunities for relocation to one of its other studios in order to maintain a solid workforce, though ILM also reportedly held a job fair to find work for its remaining employees that could not relocate.
Major Changes Have Been Happening at Disney
The studio's closure follows a corporate restructuring at Disney, which has seen significant financial downturn in recent years following lackluster box office returns for some of its key properties such as Indiana Jones and the MCU. Disney also made the controversial decision to pull several major releases, such as the highly-regarded Willow reboot from its streaming platform, Disney+, as a cost-cutting effort earlier this year.
ILM Singapore was the main studio responsible for creating the fan-favorite Clone Wars television show, which spanned for seven seasons following a revival on Disney+ in 2020. Despite a slow start, kicking off with a poorly received theatrical film, the show gained a huge following once it hit the small screen, introducing fans to all-new characters like Ahsoka Tano, who has become a fan-favorite icon among fans since her debut and the return of Darth Maul, whose apparent death in The Phantom Menace was controversial due to his popularity.
The show also spawned a sequel series under franchise veteran Dave Filoni called Star Wars Rebels, which saw the return of Ahsoka and Obi-Wan Kenobi in an all-new era, as well as spinoff series The Bad Batch and Tales of the Jedi, both of which are set to release new content in the coming years. Despite the potential loss of over 300 employees, Lucasfilm has not revealed any plans to scale back production on its upcoming releases.
Source: X