Lucasfilm has kept any information about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story under tight wraps for a while. But with the movie only six months away, the studio is finally releasing character names and descriptions, with Forest Whitaker’s role being the most notable.
Whitaker will be playing a character that hardcore fans will find familiar: Saw Gerrera from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
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Gerrera was featured in a five episode arc on Clone Wars, starting with episode two of season five. He was an insurgent soldier on his home planet of Onderon, and fought alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
Entertainment Weekly broke the news:
“Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera is bulkier, more battle-hardened with the years, and maybe a little shellshocked. He has continued to fight; and, as he suggested in the trailer, he has become something — and it’s not quite a hero. Rather, he’s a man who has tried to do the right thing by occasionally doing questionable things.”
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“’Consider him kind of a battered veteran who leads a band of Rebel extremists,’ Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy tells EW. ‘He’s on the fringe of the Rebel Alliance. Even [they] are a little concerned about him.'”
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“One reason we saved his reveal until now, in addition to him having a deeper backstory than the other new characters, is that Saw is an ally to the Rebel squad in Rogue One, but he’s not really one of them. ‘He’s off on his own,’ Kennedy says.”
The official Star Wars YouTube Channel released the following video in conjunction with the reveal:
Pablo Hidalgo then took to Twitter to expand upon the character, and the choice to use him in Rogue One.
So. Saw Gerrera. Yes, to reiterate, he was an idea developed for the proposed live action TV show, but was introduced in The Clone Wars.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
George Lucas, working in his inimitable non-linear way realized him as extremist first, and then revealed his backstory in The Clone Wars.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
(as an aside, there’s a TON of live action TV ideas in The Clone Wars, going all the way back to Season 2)
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
The idea, and we talked about this in Season 5, is that Saw was a key architect of the rebellion. But he’s definitely not Mothma or Organa
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
Think of Saw as the uncle mom and dad don’t talk about. Something bad went down. He’s ‘disowned’ to some degree.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
Anyway, this stems from George’s interest in history and current events and how art reflects it.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
Saw was militarized by the Republic to fight a proxy war against their worst enemy. A generation later, he becomes their worst enemy.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
Are you more excited for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story now that you know about the characters? Let us know in the comments below!
