While Ahsoka Tano is arguably the most popular character to be introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, coming in at a close second is Captain Rex, the Jango Fett clone who served alongside her and Anakin Skywalker during the conflict between the Republic and Separatists. An older Rex would later resurface in Star Wars Rebels, and thanks to Star Wars: The Bad Batch, one of the best Disney+ TV shows, fans have gotten to see what the clone was up to early on in the Empire’s reign. While speaking with CinemaBlend, Dee Bradley Baker, the voice behind Rex and the other male clones in these animated shows, opened up about how Rex remains popular after all these years, as well as reacted to the character’s cameo in Ahsoka last year.
Ahead of Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 premiering to Disney+ subscribers, and with the trailer having revealed Rex will be back for this final round of episodes (as will, surprisingly, Asajj Ventress, who died in the novel Dark Disciple), I pointed out to Baker in our conversation that while we don’t know what fate awaits Clone Force 99 by the end of the show, Rex will make it out alive, and thus wondered what more he’d like to do with the character’s story if given the opportunity. Baker answered:
Rex is the compelling center clone that has held all the way through, that has been this consistent force in steering things where they should go. The fans really love this guy, as do I. [Laughs] He’s a very capable fellow. He also has a warmth, he has a humanity, he’s learned to improvise, he’s learned to think and decide on his own. So he’s definitely a force to be reckoned with, and it looks like he makes it at least all the way to Endor. That’s one of the best things that I’ve ever learned in this whole journey is that at least Rex makes it all the way [laughs]. But yeah, who wouldn’t love to see what else he’s up to and who else he brings along? Again, all sorts of options are available for the good writers to explore, and I certainly hope that they do.
Dee Bradley Baker is referring to how during the epilogue of Star Wars Rebels’ series finale, Sabine Wren mentioned that Rex (now a commander) fought at the Battle of Endor. The actor admires how far the character has come along over the years and is game to keep exploring him, whether that’s post-The Bad Batch or even sometime after Return of the Jedi, which brings us to the other half of Baker’s commentary about Rex.
During the Ahsoka episode “Shadow Warrior,” when the title character was revisiting moments from her past during the Clone Wars while trapped in the World Between Worlds, a helmeted Captain Rex briefly appeared, voiced here by Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones and finally got to play Boba Fett on camera in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. I asked Baker how he reacted when he saw the cameo, and he responded as follows:
These characters live beautifully, I think, no matter what the format. To me, live-action doesn’t feel a fuller realization of the characters than the animated version. They all feel full. There is a rush of excitement to say, ‘Oh, we can actually dip into this in a fully, on-camera-type universe.’ Although really [laughs]. So much of what you see in the on-camera is digital and often animated. And then the same people are producing the animated in addition to the on-camera. The overlap and the appearance of two things just get closer and closer. So they’re kind of similar, they’re kind of the same thing, just a little different in flavor.
Dee Bradley Maker makes a good point about how the line between animation and live-action in Star Wars is often blurred. So in Captain Rex’s case, as is often the case with depicting the clone troopers in a live-action project, it’s possible that he was entirely a digital creation rather than someone wearing his armor. Nevertheless, since Ahsoka is coming back for Season 2, perhaps there will be an opportunity to have Temuera Morrison play Rex. After all, the actor is close in age to Rex because of the character’s accelerated aging, and Ahsoka has already cemented itself as a place where characters from Star Wars Rebels can snag the spotlight again.
For now, we can at least look forward to more Rex moments in Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3, which Baker described as a “satisfying” ending to the Clone Wars era. New episodes premiere Wednesdays on Disney+, and keep checking back with CinemaBlend for the biggest news concerning upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
