Whitaker played Saw Gerrera in the stand-alone Star Wars film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He later returned to voice the character in the Star Wars Rebels episodes "Ghosts of Geonosis" and "In the Name of the Rebellion." He reprised the role once more in the 2019 video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. In 2022, he returned to live-action in Andor.
Forest Whitaker was born on July 15, 1961. He played the Partisan Saw Gerrera in the 2016 Star Wars anthology film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He was the only actor considered for the role, according to writer Gary Whitta. Whitaker later voiced the character in the episodes "Ghosts of Geonosis" and "In the Name of the Rebellion" of the Star Wars Rebels animated series. He also voiced Gerrera in the 2019 video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera in his character poster
In 2022, Whitaker reprised his role as Gerrera in the episodes "Narkina 5" and "Daughter of Ferrix" in the Andor television series. The night before a rehearsal for Gerrera and Luthen Rael's argument in "Narkina 5," Whitaker called director Toby Haynes to ask about backstory and kyber crystals. During the rehearsal, Whitaker and Stellan Skarsgård, the actor who played Rael, read the scene for the first time and went at each other. According to Haynes, when the scene was filmed for real, Whitaker and Skarsgård almost deconstructed what they did in a spontaneous and natural way. The actors then reconstructed the scene from scratch, and it was hard to get to the same pitch. Haynes wanted to end Gerrera's rant with a very direct, face-on shot of Whitaker to build the intensity and bring the audience into the argument. To achieve this shot, Haynes had Whitaker repeat his speech many times and told him to "go crazy with it."
- "Launch Pad" — Star Wars Insider 160
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - The Official Mission Debrief
- "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 213
- Andor — "Narkina 5"