The vice president of Animation Production reflects on her affinity for the more Tech-nical aspects of creating a series.
It’s official: Athena Portillo loves Tech just as much as the rest of us.
The vice president of Animation Production for Lucasfilm and executive producer on Star Wars: The Bad Batch has a special affinity for the elite clone we first met in the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It’s no surprise given the more than a decade she’s spent overseeing the more technical aspects of animation production. “Tech will always be my favorite character,” Portillo tells StarWars.com. “I love everything about him. His wit, his directness, his intelligence, his honesty, and his logic in making the ultimate sacrifice for his brothers and Omega.”
That moment in the Season 2 finale, appropriately titled “Plan 99,” was a heartbreaker, but something the creative team felt would be an important and purposeful way to continue evolving the story arcs of the surviving members, including Hunter, Wrecker, Omega, and Crosshair. “It is not something that gets decided upon overnight,” Portillo says. “There are A LOT of discussions that also involve character development and the story building up to the point where the action/sacrifice, in this case, needs to make sense and have a purpose and not just be executed for shock value.” Shocking, yes. But also, emotionally impactful.
By the end of the episode, Omega had given herself up to the Empire to save her brothers, another noble sacrifice that left her imprisoned on Mount Tantiss and, in a surprise twist, in the company of another mysterious family member: her sister, Emerie Karr.
With the premiere of the final season of The Bad Batch just days away, we sat down with Portillo to talk about her history with Lucasfilm Animation and conducting a symphony of sorts in the production pipeline.
The pulse of production
Long before Portillo was overseeing production for any animated series, she worked as an intern in Lucasfilm’s licensing division. Portillo eventually landed a job as a line producer on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, officially joining Lucasfilm Animation in 2006 and working closely alongside a mentor who would help shape the course of her career: Dave Filoni.
“I have had the privilege to collaborate with Dave Filoni on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi,” Portillo says. Soon after they met, Filoni quickly recognized something in Portillo’s work and demeanor that suggested she could one day be a leader. Just six months into her stint with the animation division, Filoni asked her to move to Singapore to oversee The Clone Wars team there and complete her first year. “I am honored that he saw something in my work ethic and what I brought to the table to believe that I could oversee the Lucasfilm Animation team in San Francisco,” she says now. “He is my mentor. He challenges me constantly (which I thrive on, appreciate, and need). Like a big brother, he expects me to never settle, never become comfortable, but to keep pushing, be solution-driven, research all possible options and even aim for the impossible in certain instances.”
As one of the executive producers on The Bad Batch, Portillo describes herself as “the conductor” of a team of creatives, “leading the charge in what is necessary to achieve specific production goals to keep the show on track. A conductor stresses the musical pulse so that all the performers can follow the same metrical rhythm,” she says. “My job is to visualize the big picture (production-wise), provide direction through each artery of the division, get us all on the same page and in tune with what's required to meet deadlines and stay within budget.” Once the full animation orchestra is in tune, on the same wavelength, and clear on their goals, “I move into a macro-manager role because I trust my team to execute beautifully.”
Mentored by Filoni
Among the visionaries that brought The Bad Batch to life are Star Wars creator George Lucas, executive producer Dave Filoni, supervising director and executive producer Brad Rau, and head writer and executive producer Jennifer Corbett.
Lucas, of course, created Clone Force 99, although the elite team of clone troopers was to be introduced into an episode of The Clone Wars that was originally shelved mid-production during the original run of the series. When the series returned a decade later for one final season, the four-episode arc introducing Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair was resurrected. That opened the door for Clone Force 99 to star in a series of their own.
“Dave Filoni loved the idea of going in depth into telling the story of each clone being unique and having special abilities as well as introducing Omega who became a key part in keeping the Bad Batch together,” Portillo recalls. The series has changed the way she views the clone troopers. “It is a story worth telling in that it's about family. I love how Omega is the big sister to the Batch, playing the role of mediator, instituting reason, logic, balance, camaraderie, and is essentially the motivator to instigating missions for the good of the galaxy.”
Corbett and Rau have worked closely on all three seasons of the series, leading their own charge on the evolution of the Batch. The core members have been fighting to survive in the galaxy after Order 66 and the birth of the Empire since the series premiere. “Brad and Jen have been joined at the hip since the very first day of the production,” Portillo says. “I enjoyed watching Brad bring Jen into his world of supervising direction and seeing Jen bring him into her world of writing."
And although she’s mum on what we can expect going into Season 3 — Will the Batch be reunited? Who’s the clone with the evil laugh in the trailer? And what about the return of Asajj Ventress?! — Portillo is a firm believer in finding solutions behind-the-scenes to support whatever story the team is passionate about telling. “I’ve always believed in never saying ‘no’ to a creative/production request,” she says, “but to instead look into all avenues and options to either execute the original request or find alternate solutions.”
- Go inside the final season with executive producers Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett
- Meet the series stars Dee Bradley Baker and Michelle Ang
