Forest Whitaker to reprise his Rogue One role on Star Wars Rebels

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Before Forest Whitaker portrayed Saw Gerrera in ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, the character had first appeared in animated form for an arc on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Now, the character will be heading back to the small-screen with an appearance on Star Wars Rebels and Entertainment Weekly reports that Forest Whitaker will be reprising the role.

Star Wars Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni told EW that Forest Whitaker really got into exploring the background of his ROGUE ONE character. "He watched The Clone Wars episodes with his character and I had some detail for him about things George [Lucas] and I discussed," said Filoni. "It gave him more time to develop the character as far as, ‘How did he get there?’" The upcoming two-part episode is titled "Ghosts of Geonosis" and will air on Disney XD on January 7, 2017. As Star Wars Rebels takes place several years before the events of ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, Saw will be a "bit younger, a bit healthier, and a lot meaner."

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. Saw really has this feeling that there are things at work, and if [the Rebels] don’t get active, there’ll be no stopping it. There’s only a thread of hope at that point.

*Beware of very minor spoilers*

By now many of you have already seen ROGUE ONE in theaters (make sure to tell us what you thought of the film), but did you notice any of the visual easter-eggs for Star Wars Rebels scattered throughout the movie? The following images released by Lucasfilm (via EW) show us the Ghost (the main vessel used in Star Wars Rebels) among the Rebel fleet above Scarif, on the landing pad on Yavin 4 (upper left corner) as well as Chopper the droid rolling past Mon Mothma as she's being informed about the battle at Scarif.

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY is currently playing in theaters, so make sure to check out reviews from our own Chris Bumbray and Eric Walkuski.