Star Wars VFX Artist Confirms Amazing Detail About General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith

Let it never be said that Star Wars fans aren’t always still discovering new things about the franchise. Fans have been talking all week about a background character from 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In the sequence where General Grievous removes his robe and unlinks his arms to reveal his four lightsaber setup, a battle droid in the background is very clearly not paying attention. Standing next to him is his co-hort in the droid army, who gives him a nudge and gets him to turn his head to watch. Fans have been loving it all week and now the one responsible for this gag has come forward.

Character animator Jean-Denis Haas posted on Twitter that this background joke was all his doing and was something he created during his internship at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic. “Dare I add that this was me?” he wrote on Twitter. “Best. Internship. Ever.” Watch the full clip below!

Since making his mark on Star Wars with this hilarious blink-and-you’ll-miss-it joke, Haas gone on to work on many other fan-favorite franchises and feature films including Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Avatar, Iron Man, Avengers, and even the upcoming Space Jam 2.

He would continue to play in the galaxy far, far away though working on the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game and working as lead animator on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Haas also worked on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and even the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. All that in mind, what other animated visual effects gags in the background of all the most recent Star Wars films and shows have been hidden by the animator that we may not see for fifteen years? If you’re reading this Jean-Denis, let us know.

Grievous – and particularly, his feud with Obi-Wan Kenobi – has become a fan-favorite part of the Star Wars universe for many over the years. The character initially debuted in the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars, before appearing (with the help of CGI) in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The character has since gone on to play a role in The Clone Wars, and is expected to also appear in the upcoming revival on Disney+.