With Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story having just hit theaters this past weekend, I’d held off on a reveal that initially snuck out in an unlikely place – a poster at Toys “R” Us. Today the official announcement has been made that Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, who stars as Rebel freedom fighter Saw Gerrera in Rogue One, will join the cast of the hit animated series Star Wars Rebels, which is set in a time period just prior to the events of Rogue One. Whitaker will reprise his role as Gerrera, providing the voice of the character as he makes his debut on Star Wars Rebels: Ghosts of Geonosis, Parts One and Two premiering SATURDAY, JANUARY 7 (8:30-9:30 p.m. EST), on Disney XD. Check out a clip below!
“It’s an incredible honor to have Forest Whitaker play Saw in ‘Rebels,'” says series executive producer Dave Filoni. “Forest did a great job at capturing Saw in a way that is a bit mad, a bit crazed, a bit afraid, but also a bit sympathetic. He sees something coming, but no one will take action before it’s too late.”
The character of Saw Gerrera was first introduced in the TV series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (2008-2015) as a guerrilla fighter for his home planet. Created by George Lucas, Saw received training from the Jedi – Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano – and served as an early harbinger of the Rebel Alliance, an assortment of disparate groups coming together to fight for a common cause.
If you’ve seen Rogue One, then you already know that Gerrera is something of an anomaly by that point – a Rebel pushed so far that even the Alliance called him “an extremist.” Perhaps here we’ll be able to see his attitude take shape. Stay tuned…
