'Escorted' by his unique band of Rebel soldiers fighting for his cause on Jedha (and part of the 'Cavern Angels' squadron), Jyn Erso and her new friends are taken to the lair of the enigmatic and dangerous
Saw Gerrera, an isolated but nonetheless powerful force of violence and retribution against the Empire. Early conceptual art ideas saw the group make their way via the catacombs of Jedha, where dark tunnels were chillingly filled with hundreds of ancient, eerie skulls.
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| Conceptual art clearly envisaging Forest Whitaker as the enigmatic and aggressive Saw Gerrera. |
In the originally filmed version of
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Saw Gerrera was still the bald, flight suit/armour wearing figure originally seen in communication with Galen and Lyra Erso years before on Lah'mu. Saw's talk with the grown-up Jyn on Jedha had him concerned at her future well being with the other side of the Rebel cause and her potential survival. The early teaser trailer has some of that concerned and angry dialogue ('What will you do when they catch you?', 'What will they do if they break you?', and 'If you continue to fight, what will you become?'). With his deteriorating medical condition, several deleted scenes would see him talking whilst sitting in an old starship flight chair turned into a medical monitoring device, a moment from that can be briefly seen in the first teaser trailer of 2016. By the time of the film's infamous reshoots by April 2016, the character of Saw had visually, physically changed to reflect an older, even more severely ill figure. His death scene was filmed twice, firstly outside the caverns as he helps Jyn escape the Jedha catastrophe, then reshot with him inside his chamber, ready to embrace the onrush of death.
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| Saw in his medically reconditioned flight chair. |
Mentioned in the official
Rogue One sticker encyclopedia, Saw Gerrera had a 'secret mission' to accomplish whilst on Jedha - presumably linked to the uncovering of the
Death Star with the finished movie but also altered once the character of defector Bodhi Rook was changed and expanded with the reshoots - Gerrera's plot element linked to the discovery of the
Death Star was later developed within the
Star Wars Rebels animated series, of which he made several special episode appearances, the character also voiced by Forest Whitaker.
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| A 2-1B medical droid would be constantly at Saw's side monitoring his ever-deteriorating conditions. The sequence was deleted from the movie as reshoots saw the character of Gerrera change. |
More behind the scenes info:
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| Gareth Edwards confers with Forest Whitaker during the original shooting for Rogue One. |
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| A look at Saw's interior domain used in both the original shoot and the later reshoots for Rogue One. |
