Saw Gerrera lives! Yes, that’s right. Forest Whittaker‘s break out character from this weekend’s blockbuster smash hit Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is coming back to his animated roots. The Rebel nomad, who originated on the small screen with Star Wars Clone Wars, will show back up on Star Wars Rebels when the second half of Season 3 kicks off early next year.
Rogue One, the first of many Star Wars spin-offs to come, is a bonafide hit, pulling in $71M on its opening Friday, with the weekend box office suspected to top out as high as $160M. Fans have fallen in love with the all-new characters. But now we must get into SPOILER territory. Those same fans are concerned that they may never see some of these guys again. Because Rogue One kills off pretty much everyone. There is even some speculation that The Ghost, the iconic ship piloted by Hera in Star Wars Rebels, doesn’t make it out of that movie’s climactic raid on Scarif. There is no substantial proof that The Ghost made the jump to hyperspace. But if it didn’t, that would explain its absence in future Star Wars movies.
That said, the timeline in Star Wars Rebels is quite a ways behind the events being depicted in Rogue One, which, as we are learning, definitely makes way for some of Rogue One’s characters to return in some capacity. And it looks like Saw, who is doomed to blow up with the rest of the citizens on holy Jedi planet Jedha, has not fought his last fight by a long shot.
Star Wars Rebels has already succeed in bringing back some of Star Wars most classic characters. A very young Princess Leia already showed up, along with a much younger Lando Calrissian. Darth Vader played a key role in Season 2, and Darth Maul is a major player on the Disney XD hit this year. Rogue One returned the favor, offering quite a few cool nods and Star Wars Rebels Easter eggs. Along with a cameo from the Ghost ship, Astro-Mech droid Chopper shows up for a live-action appearance and we hear Hera’s name over the loud speaker, and learn that she has now become a general.
News of Saw Gerrera‘s return was actually announced courtesy of a Star Wars Rebels Season 3 poster spotted in Toys R Us, which proudly displays Saw’s much younger visage as he sits, ready to fight. They are even using one of Saw’s Rogue One lines as the tagline for this poster. Perhaps most interesting is that Saw returns to his original aquamarine eye color. In the movie, Saw had brown eyes, which bothered some fans. Perhaps we’ll learn what became of his eyes in these upcoming episodes. No joke, fans actually really do care about this very small detail. You can see the poster in question in the tweet below courtesy of Twitter.
In Rogue One, Saw is not on good terms with the Rebel Alliance, who send Jyn in to talk with the extremist. The man no longer has an official affiliation with the organized Rebellion. We may get more of a backstory on how everything went down with these upcoming Rebels episodes. It isn’t clear yet if The Ghost will be landing on Jedha, or how that new Star Wars planet will play into all of this. Star Wars Rebels season 3 will continue January 7th, 2017 on Disney XD.
Looks like Saw Gerrera is coming to #StarWarsRebels soon! @CoffeeWthKenobi#RogueOnepic.twitter.com/MMYcwr2TN5
— Rebels Reactions (@RebelsReactions) December 17, 2016