Forest Whitaker’s Star Wars: Rogue One character revealed

Yesterday, I posted some details on the main characters from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

It mentioned that Forest Whitaker’s character was one with history in the Star Wars universe. I wondered whether they were going to do something with Boba Fett, but turns out that was me being silly, instead they are going way back to the Clone Wars.

Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Monsters) is directing Rogue One, which tells the story of resistance fighters who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star. The film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy and is slated for a December 16, 2016 release.

Spoilers ahead.

Turns out he is playing a character called Saw Gerrera. Who he? Well, he was first seen in Season 5 of The Clone Wars.

Here is what the Wookipedia has to say about him.

Saw Gerrera

In the Clone Wars episode A War on Two Fronts, which aired in October 2012, Saw and Steela were part of an insurgent group being unofficially trained by Anakin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the padawan Ahsoka Tano.

The fact that Darth Vader is in Rogue One and Gerrera knew him as Anakin could lead to some interesting scenes if they come face to mask.

Also, if the Wookipedia is correct the fact they mention the New Republic could mean Whitaker may show up in future films, or at least the character’s work in Rogue One may be mentioned.

It is great that they are using characters from the animated shows. They were so good (especially when compared to the previous prequel trilogy, don’t forget that Rogue One is technically one of the prequels) and I hope we see more characters make the transition to the big screen.

According to EW, 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.

“Consider him kind of a battered veteran who leads a band of Rebel extremists,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said. “He’s on the fringe of the Rebel Alliance. Even [they] are a little concerned about him.”

For Rogue One, they needed a character on the borderline, someone who would represent the extreme end of the fight against the Emperor. Producer John Knoll’s idea was to show how the Death Star is a threat that pulls the disparate Rebel factions into a place of unity. The Lucasfilm story group plucked Saw Gerrera from Clone Wars history as a good candidate for a radical.

“The Death Star is the event that sort of pulls everybody 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?” says Kiri Hart, Lucasfilm’s head of story development.