Forest Whitaker's STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE Surprise CLONE WARS Character Revealed
Lucasfilm has revealed that Forest Whitaker will be playing Saw Gerrera in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. If you're a fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this should really get your blood pumping with excitement! You will find a full photo of him in costume below along with some additional information.
Saw Gerrera made his debut in the universe on The Clone Wars animated series and he was featured in Season 5, Episode 2, which was titled "A War on Two Fronts." In the show, he was a young man on the planet Onderon who unleashed a guerrilla war on the droid army of Separatists who took over his world. He also fought alongside Anakin Skywalker with his sister Steela before Anakin succumbed to the dark side and became Darth Vader. Saw and Steela were part of an insurgent group who were being trained by Anakin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Captain Rex, and the padawan Ahsoka Tano.
How freakin' awesome is that!? I absolutely love that Lucasfilm brought a character to life in the film from the animated series. In Rogue One, Gerrera is described by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as a "battered veteran who leads a band of Rebel extremists. He's on the fringe of the Rebel Alliance. Even [they] are a little concerned about him." EW went on to say:
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.
Kennedy also added that Gerrera is an ally to the Rebel squad in Rogue One, but he’s not really one of them, “He’s off on his own.” Kiri Hart, Lucasfilm’s head of story development, also chimed in with some information, explaining:
"The Death Star is the event that sort of pulls everybody [from various Rebel groups] into a place of unity, and prior to that it’s a little bit more divided. Who are at the different ends of that spectrum?"
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters on December 16, 2016. For more information on the film and to catch up with more recent news involving details on several of the other characters we'll see in the movie, click here.