This week, Entertainment Weekly has been offering up a bevy of images and details about Rogue One. I'll be talking about most of them in this week's Five Bits, but there's one slice of info that has me really giddy, and it's something I kinda want to talk about in more detail than just a sentence.
It turns out that Forest Whitaker is playing Saw Gerrera; the leader of a band of Rebel extremists. Why is that exciting?
Well, it's because this isn't the first time we've seen Gerrera on screen.
Well, it's because this isn't the first time we've seen Gerrera on screen.
The character first appeared in the "Onderon" story arc of The Clone Wars' fifth season. The younger Saw, his sister Steela, and Lux Bonteri lead a resistance against the Seperatist forces on the planet Onderon. Realizing that their efforts can inspire similar rebellions, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex travel to Onderon to help the soldiers hone their fighting skills and battle tactics. The story lasts four episodes, and ends with Onderon's liberation, and with Steela's untimely death. This clearly hits Saw hard, and undoubtedly leads him to the situation he's in when I think we meet him in Rogue One. (By the way, the entire Clone Wars series is on Netflix, if you're interested in watching these episodes. Or watch the whole show. It's great.)
There are a few reasons why Saw's role in Rogue One is getting my inner Star Wars fanboy all riled up. But the biggest and most exciting,reason is this shows that Disney and Lucasfilm are indeed willing to allow characters to make the jump from TV/comic/novel/video game to film, and they're not just saying that.
Saw is a good first choice because he's not a huge character, and casual moviegoers, I assume, won't need to watch his Clone Wars episodes to understand the character, but bigger Star Wars fans like myself will get really giddy when/if there's some sort of passing remark about Saw's past efforts to reclaim Onderon, or about how he lost his sister, etc. It's the best form of fan service, in my opinion; make the nerds happy, don't confuse the normal viewers, make sure it doesn't hinder the plot.
And, yeah, down the road it'd be great to see other TV/comic/novel/video game characters in the films. Ahsoka's probably everyone's first pick. There's Cad Bane, Hondo, the Ghost crew. They're all possibilities now, but hopefully Lucasfilm takes it one step at a time. And Saw Gerrera is a good first step.
Meanwhile. Daredevil's never been mentioned or made an appearance in a Marvel movie yet.
Noah
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