The Star Wars galaxy’s clone troopers don’t age like regular humans – and The Bad Batch‘s Clone Force 99 is certainly no exception. So, exactly how old is Clone Force 99 in Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3?
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How Old Is Clone Force 99 in Star Wars: The Bad Batch?
Like all clone troopers, Clone Force 99 was created on Kamino roughly a decade before Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Given The Bad Batch kicks off three years after Attack of the Clones, chronologically, Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, and Crosshair are just 13 years old in Season 1. That said (as many fans on Reddit are keen to point out), Clone Force 99 wasn’t necessarily among the first clone batches to come out of the oven, so they’re probably closer to 10 or 11. What’s more, Echo potentially emerged from his test tube earlier than his fellow squaddies and could be around 11-12.
So, given the relatively small time jumps between The Bad Batch Season 1-2 and 2-3, Clone Force 99 are at most 14 in Season 3, and no younger than 11. How come they all look middle-aged? You can thank the accelerated growth modifications the Kaminoans introduced while cooking up all clone troopers (including Clone Force 99) from the DNA of legendary bounty hunter Jango Fett. This ensured the clones aged at twice the rate of a normal human, reaching adulthood in just 10 years.
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There’s a downside to the clones’ supercharged aging, though: it has no off switch. As shown in various other Star Wars media – including Star Wars Rebels and Obi-Wan Kenobi – the clone troopers’ lifespans are dramatically shorter than that of a standard human or unmodified clone. Both the Rebels incarnation of Captain Rex and Obi-Wan‘s down-and-out trooper Nax look appreciably geriatric despite their relative youth.
A similar fate presumably awaits those members of Clone Force 99 who survive The Bad Batch Season 3. That said, Clone Force 99’s genetic mutations may make them less susceptible to the ravages of accelerated aging, although there’s no explicit canonical confirmation that this is the case (at least for now).
How Old is Omega in Star Wars: The Bad Batch?
What about the age of Clone Force 99’s post-Clone Wars recruit, Omega? This information is never explicitly stated on-screen in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, however, given her backstory as the only unmodified female clone of Jango Fett, she’s around 13 in Season 1. This assumes the Kaminoans created Omega at the same time as her unmodified “brother,” Boba Fett.
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If said assumption is indeed accurate, Omega is not much older than 14 or 15 in The Bad Batch Season 3, as relatively little time elapses across the Disney+ show’s three-season run. Even so, this is enough to make Omega chronologically older than her biologically more mature Clone Force 99 “brothers,” whom she remembers as babies!
Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 is currently streaming on Disney+, with new episodes dropping Wednesdays.
Published: Mar 19, 2024 12:20 pm