Saw Gerrera Might Be Part Of Future Star Wars Projects

Forrest Whitaker's Saw Gerrera, a character who debuted on Clone Wars before appearing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, has already been confirmed to appear in an upcoming story on Star Wars Rebels -- but Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy suggests that he could have had a bigger role in Rogue One, and that the backstory they developed to accommodate that larger role still might come into play somewhere.

"To be honest, we originally thought we were going to develop Saw into something much larger, but we couldn't accommodate it [in Rogue One]," Kennedy told Empire. "So he is not in the movie as much as we would like to have him in the movie, which creates the opportunity to explore his character even further in our future development."

Given the fact that the Rebels appearance has already been well-documented, her comments might be taken to imply that Saw will appear elsewhere (maybe in another of the Star Wars Story stand-alone films), although certainly that's inference and not clearly stated.

For his part, in that same piece, Whitaker said he was excited to see where the character went next...although it seems even more likely that his comments were made before the Rebels announcement had firmed up.

It's always difficult to guess where a character might appear next: outside of the Trilogy films (which, at least for now, Gerrera appears to be out of because of the amount of time that has elapsed between Rogue One and The Force Awakens, and Gerrera's story in Rogue One), it's not clear when the rumored Han Solo, Boba Fett, and other stand-alone movies might take place in the timeline of the Star Wars galaxy. If they happen before Rogue One and A New Hope, certainly that makes it easier to explore some of Saw's backstory without stepping on much. If the movie in question starts to overlap with Rogue One, Clone Wars, or Rebels, his personal timeline can start to get complicated.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hit US theaters December 16, 2016. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it's the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core "Skywalker Saga" of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue One tells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star. The story spins directly off the opening crawl from the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. In that crawl, it read: "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set between the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and shortly before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. In the film, resistance fighters embark on a daring mission to steal the Empire's plans for the Death Star.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters today.