While Star Wars: The Bad Batch is showing some former favorite clones turn into Empire villains (such as the unfortunate fate of Crosshair), this isn’t the first time this new perspective was considered. Star Wars Rebels writer and creator Dave Filoni actually considered bringing Commander Cody back in Rebels. With Cody’s inhibitor chip having been activated, he would have taken on a more villainous role. Although it certainly would have been heartbreaking to see a fan favorite become a character to root against, it also laid the creative groundwork for The Bad Batch to show the emotional toll of watching beloved clones becoming unwitting and unwilling bad guys.
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In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Commander Cody was shown to be like most all of the other clones in the Army of the Republic: a good soldier and a good man who acted in service of his role, but also with compassion and empathy. He formed an especially close relationship with his Jedi General, Obi-Wan Kenobi, over the course of numerous missions. His friendship was well documented in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, too, with him returning Obi-Wan’s dropped lightsaber just moments before the infamous Order 66 was enacted.
But he, like every other clone, had a ticking time bomb in the form of his implanted inhibitor chip, designed to switch the clones from regular soldiers into obedient servants of the Empire and eradicators of the Jedi when activated. While Ahsoka managed to remove Rex’s chip and the Bad Batch’s genetic anomalies seem to cancel theirs out, Cody was not so lucky. He, like most of the other clones, underwent that flipping of a mental switch when Emperor Palpatine uttered his famous command: “Execute Order 66.” In that instant, Cody, who had just helped his friend Obi-Wan on Utapau and sent him off in good spirits, ordered his squadron to fire on the Jedi, meaning to kill him. That scene is the last time Cody is shown and so, canonically, his story remains unfinished from that point on.
However, Filoni at one point did intend to bring Cody back into the fray in an episode of Rebels, as writer Henry Gilroy revealed at Dragon Con in 2018. The storyline centered around Grand Admiral Thrawn figuring out that the crew of the Ghost was working with clones. Thrawn would have brought in Cody to help research and track those clones down. While it may have been an interesting – if devastating – concept to see Cody return to the franchise in a completely different light, the storyline was eventually scrapped as they felt it was too far outside the current Rebels narrative focus.
Not only did that original concept provide good framework for Crosshair now falling victim to his inhibitor chip, and his turn from hero to villain, but it also raises a new question: could Cody possibly show up in a future episode of The Bad Batch, and how might that onscreen reunion differ from Rex’s return in Rebels, an undeniably happier reunion, as Rex had remained a hero? While there are rumors, too, that Cody may show up in the upcoming live-action Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch is an excellent vehicle to continue telling his story. With viewers already primed for seeing past favorite clones in a new light, Cody’s potential arc from hero to villain could make for some of the most heart-wrenching yet compelling storytelling, and could wrap up his character’s narrative with a satisfying conclusion.
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