Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – Saw Gerrera Timeline Explained

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

EA showed the first gameplay footage from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order at E3 2019, and it looked like a pretty fun experience. But the main takeaway for eagle-eyed Star Wars fans is that Saw Gerrera, the character played by Forest Whitaker in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, will appear in the game.

Where does this game fit into the wider Saw Gerrera story? After all, Gerrera has already appeared in Rogue One as well as The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series. If you’re wondering which order is best for re-watching Saw’s journey, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get cracking, then…

The Clone Wars Explored Saw Gerrera’s Origins

Set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the Clone Wars animated series gave Saw Gerrera his first taste of war. The character made his debut in this show and he was voiced at that point by Andrew Kishino.

The episodes you need to watch if you fancy seeing this story for yourself are all from The Clone Wars season 5. There are four episodes to check out: “A War on Two Fronts,” “Front Runners,” “The Soft War,” and “Tipping Point.”

It’s revealed in these episodes that Saw heralds from the planet Onderon, which was invaded during the Clone Wars by the droid army on Count Dooku’s orders. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano came to train the locals in combat techniques. Saw received some of this training, and he helped to turn the tide in the conflict. It wasn’t a completely happy victory, though, because Saw’s sister, Steela, died in the conflict.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is set in the aftermath of Revenge of the Sith. With the Jedi Order all but wiped out by Emperor Palpatine’s brutal Order 66, the player will take control of a Padawan on the run by the name of Cal Kestis.

Having spent some time in hiding, Cal is drawn back into the open to help out an early version of the Rebel Alliance. He’ll find himself on a mission to Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeworld that’s been occupied by the Empire. At this point, the player will run into Saw Gerrera, whose appearance in the game has clearly been modeled on Forest Whitaker.

Saw points Cal in the right direction to rescue some Wookiees, which leads the player into an action-packed sequence of events. Since Fallen Order doesn’t launch until Nov. 15, it’s unclear how large Saw’s role is in the game. We look forward to finding out, though.

Star Wars Rebels Shows Saw Nearly Discovering the Death Star

The Star Wars Rebels animated series is set a fair bit later in the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, with the show slotting into the timeline in the last five years before the events of the original trilogy kick off.

Saw Gerrera popped up a handful of times in the series, with Whitaker providing his voice. He first appeared in season 3’s two-part “Ghosts of Geonosis” before popping up again in season 4’s two-part “In the Name of the Rebellion.” If you’re planning to binge through the full Saw Gerrera story, you’ll want to stick those episodes on the list.

In “Ghosts of Geonosis,” Saw and his Partisans, a subsection of the Rebel Alliance, investigate the mysterious disappearance of the local population of the planet Geonosis. They don’t quite manage to work out that the Empire wiped out the natives after constructing the Death Star in Geonosis’ orbit. When Saw reappears in season 4, he’s worked out that Kyber crystals were involved in the Empire’s plans to build a superweapon. Which leads us nicely into…

Rogue One Finishes Saw Gerrera’s Story

Saw Gerrera pops up at two points in the narrative of Rogue One: right near the start, a young Jyn Erso escapes the Empire by hiding underground until Saw can rescue her. Later, when the adult Jyn’s quest takes her to Jedha, the pair are reunited. By this point, Saw and his Partisans are acting quite separately to the main Rebel Alliance, as they’ve been outcast for their extremist methods. Saw himself has clearly been through a lot, as he now needs a respirator to breathe and robot legs to get around.

Saw gives Jyn the message from her father, which contains information vital to the survival of the Rebellion and the saving of the galaxy: the weakness in the Death Star that Luke Skywalker will later exploit. Saw, having done his bit to defeat the Empire, dies on Jedha when the Death Star destroys his base. That’s the end of Saw’s story, but that doesn’t mean that we know all the details about his life.

Indeed, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will fill in some more segments of the Saw Gerrera timeline, and you’ll also find more nuggets of information about the character in numerous Star Wars novels. One particularly interesting read is Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel, which explains how Saw came to know Jyn’s family. The novelization of Solo: A Star Wars Story is also worth checking out, as it reveals that Enfys Nest was stealing fuel for Saw’s Partisans in that movie.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order releases on Nov. 15 and we look forward to seeing what it adds to Saw’s story and the wider galaxy.