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Forest Whitaker To Play Resistance Leader In New ‘Star Wars’ Movie, Movie Poster Causes Outrage In Hong Kong

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 21:06 PST, Sep 4, 2016

Forest Whitaker will be playing the role of an important rebel leader in the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One movie, according to Cinema Blend.

The spinoff film that is based on the Star Wars franchise depicts the Southpaw actor in the role of Saw Gerrera, a resistance fighter who works to defeat the Galactic Empire by participating in the rebel mission whose goal is to steal the Death Star’s blueprint. According to the Verge, Forest Whitaker’s character made its debut in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the animated movie, as a leader of an army that is fighting the separatists.

In the upcoming movie, Saw Gerrera will resume his fight against the evil dictatorship that is upheld by the Lords of the Sith. Forest Whitaker revealed that, apart from military courage and leadership, his onscreen character shares one key attribute with the evil Darth Vader: dependence on a life support system.

Throughout the movie, Forest Whitaker will be seen wearing bulky armor that helps his character to cope with some traumatic injuries that he incurred during his previous battles. It is interesting to note that Saw and his army were, in fact, trained by Darth Vader when the Dark Lord was still fighting alongside the Jedi Knights as General Anakin Skywalker.

Trailers for the upcoming Star Wars spinoff movie reveal that Forest Whitaker’s character is subtly different in appearance from the animated version. In the animated movie, Saw Gerrera has aquamarine eyes and a distinct scar that cuts across his eyebrow. On the other hand, Forest Whitaker’s version of the character has brown eyes while the distinctive scar is shown to arch above the eyebrow.

However, these minor differences won’t deter a talented actor like Forest Whitaker from delivering a stellar performance. Critics are speculating that the frail condition of the Repo Men actor’s character and the storyline behind the character is bound to make the movie emotionally engaging. Despite suffering many losses in the battles against the Empire, Forest Whitaker’s war-weary character remains tragic throughout the epic, as he never seems to receive the credit that he may deserve to get.

Forest Whitaker is known to be the perfect actor to portray charismatic military leaders or even tyrant dictators. In fact, the actor won an Academy Award in the Best Actor category for his brilliant portrayal of Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, in The Last King of Scotland. Forest Whitaker will once again don a military officer’s uniform for his dynamic role in Arrival, an upcoming movie in which the actor portrays a United States Army Colonel who gears up to save the planet from a possible alien invasion.

The actor’s onscreen character will lead an elite team which sets off to investigate the landing of a mysterious spacecraft on Earth. However, Forest Whitaker’s Arrival has created quite a controversy amongst the citizens of Hong Kong. According to the Bangkok Post, the movie poster of the upcoming sci-fi alien movie shows a mysterious spacecraft hovering over the Hong Kong skyline, that also includes Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower.

The movie poster has enraged many citizens in Hong Kong, who are gravely concerned about the growing influence of the Chinese Government in the region. Lately, sparks have been flying between the Chinese administrators and Hong Kong’s democratic activists over the Communist Government’s interference in the region’s politics, media, and education.

Many citizens have voiced their protests against the controversial movie poster by posting angry comments on social media. In fact, some Hong Kong citizens have even called for a ban on the movie. Forest Whitaker is yet to comment on the controversy, while the movie’s official Facebook page still features the controversial poster. A comment on the Facebook page has expressed the filmmaker’s disappointment over the blunder that was caused by a third party contractor.

[Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File]

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