Star Wars: Gary Oldman says he originally voiced General Grievous

I’m probably not alone in saying that Gary Oldman is one of our greatest living actors. He’s appeared in almost every type of movie, including big franchises such as Harry Potter and Batman, but he’s never travelled to a galaxy far, far away. Over the years, there have been rumours that Gary Oldman was in talks for roles in the Star Wars franchise. None have panned out, but Gary Oldman revealed that he was the original voice for General Grievous in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

While speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gary Oldman commented on the Star Wars rumours. “I did a voice for Star Wars…was it General Grievous?” Oldman explained, adding, “What happened was something to do with union and non-union stuff…” Gary Oldman did record dialogue as General Grievous for Revenge of the Sith, saying that “[George] Lucas directed me through the whole thing; yeah, he was terrific.” The actor added that all the “other stuff is rumours.” So that means that sitting on a shelf somewhere is footage of Gary Oldman voicing General Grievous. I would love to hear that. General Grievous wound up being voiced by Matthew Wood, a supervising sound editor at Skywalker Sound, who has reprised the role for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and various Star Wars videogames.

Gary Oldman was most recently seen starring in Slow Horses, a spy thriller series for Apple TV. Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, a dumping ground department of MI5 agents who have been reassigned there due to career-ending mistakes. A second season will follow later this year, and the series was recently renewed for seasons three and four. Oldman is also part of the star-studded ensemble cast of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which stars Cillian Murphy as theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project who helped to create the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer will be released on June 21, 2023.