Forest Whitaker will reprise his Star Wars: Rogue One role of Saw Gerrera in animated form on Star Wars Rebels.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Besides making a lot of money for the Disney/Lucasfilm coalition, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story introduced into the live-action arena a character carrying revolutionary motivations in a revolutionary way in Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera. For the first time – arguably since Boba Fett’s animated pre-Empire Strikes Back unveiling in 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special– an animated character, first seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, manifested in live-action form on the big screen. However, we’ll be seeing Saw again in the animated arena.
An official featurette previewing the post-holiday return of Star Wars Rebels reveals that the crew of the Ghost will encounter none other than the off-the-reservation rebel fighter Saw Gerrera, voiced by Forest Whitaker himself. It will certainly be a timely role reprisal after the 2007 Best Lead Actor Oscar winner just brought him to life in Rogue One in a brief, but memorable capacity that saw the arc of the war-weary, tragedy-addled guerilla fighter come to a close by way of the Death Star blast that destroyed Jedha City.
Consequently, Saw’s appearance on Rebels provides an interesting baseline for the timeframe in which the show takes place. A stark contrast from the spry young anti-Separatist freedom fighter in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the latest animated version is – by obvious necessity— modeled after Whitaker’s appearance. As Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni explains to EW of Whitaker's development of the Saw character:
“Forest really wanted to know a lot about the character. He watched The Clone Wars episodes with his character and I had some detail for him about things George [Lucas] and I discussed. It gave him more time to develop the character as far as, ‘How did he get there?’” Adding: “He’s not quite as beat up as you see him [in Rogue One]. I never wanted to go into a lengthy thing about this is how Saw lost his foot. It’s more about his philosophy and who he is and what he thinks about the Rebellion — and how they go about resisting the Empire.”
Interestingly, on Rebels, Saw sports the same shaved head look that he had several years ago when he helped smuggle young Jyn Erso to safety in Rogue One’s prologue. While early trailers for the film showed the contemporary Saw having that same look, the highly-publicized Rogue One reshoots saw Whitaker redo the contemporary scenes with a more grizzled look, sporting longer, unkempt salt-and-pepper-colored hair. While it’s likely that the Rebels production team worked off the pre-reshoot footage, the idea of Saw still having a shaved head during a period presumably closer to Rogue One‘s culminating events gives Rebels a little more space in the timeline before it hits movie territory.
Star Wars Rebels will make its return on DisneyXD, showcasing a newly-certified movie character in Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera on January 7. Check out the previews-filled featurette below!