WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 1, Episode 16, “Kamino Lost,” streaming now on Disney+.
In its first season, The Bad Batch introduced new locations into the ever-growing galaxy far, far away and brought familiar planets back on-screen. Kamino quickly became a focal point in the series, the place the main cast of characters was always destined to return to in the season's buildup and climax. While the final two episodes of Season 1 mostly took place on the same planet, it's not the place it ended -- and this has sparked an even greater mystery than what lies in the show's future.
In the final moments of "Kamino Lost," former Kaminoan chief scientist Nala Se was ushered off an Imperial shuttle on an unnamed planet. The Empire's plans for Nala Se and her cloning expertise are just one of several mysteries the episode's epilogue brought to the surface. Most notably: Where is this new facility located, and could it have a subtle connection to a location previously mentioned in another Star Wars story? In theory, the planet Nala Se lands on at the end of The Bad Batch could be Wayland from Heir to the Empire.
The Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn was released in the early 1990s during the large gap between the Star Wars original trilogy and prequel trilogy films. In the Star Wars timeline, the story takes place directly after the events of Return of the Jedi and features familiar characters such as Luke Skywalker alongside new ones, including Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade, who would later marry into the Skywalker family.
The planet Wayland played a major role in the conflict between Thrawn, Skywalker and the larger New Republic. Thrawn attempted to carry out some of the Empire's plans after the regime fell. This may explain why Wayland is the planet at the end of The Bad Batch, given that cloning technology existed there, and Emperor Palpatine's destructive quest for immortality -- both in Legends and in canon -- often involved making genetic copies of other beings and sometimes of himself. One of the final battles in the Heir to the Empire trilogy even involves Luke Skywalker fighting a clone of himself, created with the genetic material from the hand he lost on Bespin.
Though the exterior ground of the planet in The Bad Batch is only seen briefly, a few comparisons can be made between those visuals and descriptions from the Heir to the Empire books. Nala Se's ship touches down on a mountain similar to Mount Tantiss, where the cloning technology existed in the Legends story. Zahn also describes the planet's climate as tropical, much like how it appears in "Kamino Lost."
In recent years, various Star Wars projects in addition to The Bad Batch have given subtle nods to Legends stories and characters in canon material, so this wouldn't be the first time a new show, book or comic paid homage to the franchise's deep roots. Locations, characters and even Force powers have found their way into Star Wars canon from Legends stories. For example, The Last Jedi pulled Luke Skywalker's Force projection ability right out of the Dark Empire comic.
Zahn has had the privilege of bringing characters such as Admiral Ar'alani directly into canon from his Legends books into his latest trilogies. Vader Immortal, ILMxLAB's first Star Wars VR experience, even mentions Wayland, which was exclusively a Legends location until the game technically made it canon.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch episodes are now available to stream on Disney+.