Is Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) in Andor? Star Wars Explained

If you are anything like me, you spent years wondering why Saw Gerrera was taking massive drags from a pressurized oxygen mask in Rogue One. We all assumed his lungs were simply ruined by Geonosian insecticide or some brutal battlefield injury. But the second season of Andor completely upends that theory and replaces it with a tragic, mind-blowing truth: Saw Gerrera is huffing highly volatile starship fuel to cope with his trauma and fuel his radical rebellion.

As a massive Star Wars nerd, I have tracked Saw’s journey across multiple mediums for years. Let me walk you through how Andor connects all these puzzle pieces and why this gas-huffing revelation changes how we look at Rogue One forever.

Playing Through the Kashyyyk Refinery Campaign

My first real interaction with Saw’s guerrilla tactics happened while playing the campaign in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Here is the exact path I used to find him in the game.

To get to Saw, I had to execute a highly specific series of moves in the Imperial Refinery on Kashyyyk:

• After swimming to the Imperial landing zone, I climbed the vines on the front right leg of the massive AT-AT walker, eventually hijacking it to clear out the local stormtroopers.
• Once I entered the hangar, I opened my Holomap by pressing the Options button on my controller to check my coordinates. I was at Cargo Pad 119-Grek.
• I ran through the hangar into the Forest Trench, dropped down two levels, and used my lightsaber to slash through the thick vines on the right to find a hidden cave.
• Inside this cave, I defeated a giant Wyyyschokk spider, walked to the back of the room, and interacted with the workbench to unlock the Overcharge upgrade for my companion droid, BD-1.
• I climbed the grating behind the workbench, used BD-1 to overcharge the wall-run panel, and slid down the zipline back to the main path.
• I used Force Pull to lower a pipe bridge, navigated through a vent, and defeated a Purge Trooper before using the Scomp Link to unlock a shortcut back to the overgrown pass.
• Finally, I took the lift up to the refinery roof, where I stood alongside Saw and his Partisans as we successfully liberated the Wookiee prisoners.

During my playthrough, I noticed a funny visual continuity error. Saw’s in-game model is basically a de-aged version of Forest Whitaker’s Rogue One appearance, but his character model completely lacks the signature fractal scar on his face. Since the game is set in 14 BBY, that scar should definitely be there.

Meeting the Madman on Segra Milo in Season One

By the time we catch up with Saw in the first season of Andor, set in 5 BBY, the physical and mental toll of endless war has started to show. Forest Whitaker brings an incredible, manic energy to the role, appearing in Episode 8 and Episode 11.

We find Saw operating out of a dark, subterranean hideout on the jungle planet of Segra Milo. His hideout, filmed at the real-world Winspit Quarry in Dorset, feels incredibly cold, isolated, and oppressive.

In Season 1, Luthen Rael visits Segra Milo to offer high-grade military equipment in exchange for Saw’s help in an operation run by a rival rebel leader, Anto Kreegyr. Saw delivers an incredible, cynical speech rejecting the offer. He mocks other resistance groups, calling them a weak, disorganized collection of separatists, sectorists, and neo-republicans. This scene is a masterpiece because it shows how incredibly fractured the early rebellion was.

Siphoning Rhydonium on D’Qar in Season Two

The final season of Andor is structured in a really cool way, covering four years across four three-episode blocks. During the second block, set in 3 BBY, we find Saw’s Partisans temporarily camped out on D’Qar, the exact same Outer Rim planet that General Leia Organa would use as her Resistance headquarters decades later in the sequel trilogy.

In Episode 5, written by Beau Willimon, Luthen sends a young mechanic from Ferrix named Wilmon Paak to D’Qar. Wilmon’s job is to train Saw’s lieutenant, Pluti, to operate a specialized siphoning device to steal rhydonium fuel from an Imperial pipeline. But Saw’s intense paranoia leads him to suspect that Pluti is an Imperial mole. After a tense interrogation where he points a blaster at Wilmon to test his loyalty, Saw executes Pluti and forces Wilmon to accompany him to the pipeline to pull off the heist alone.

To understand the sheer madness of this mission, we have to look at the in-universe economics of rhydonium. Raw rhydonium is an incredibly volatile, radioactive starship fuel. According to lore established in The Mandalorian, transporting or siphoning raw rhydonium has an incredibly high volatility rate, with a 50 percent chance of spontaneous combustion under extreme friction.

The economic Return on Investment of this heist for Saw’s cell can be modeled as follows: 

ROI = ((V(r) x C(m)) – (N(p) x C(p) + C(e))) / C(e), where:

• V(r) is the total volume of siphoned rhydonium in liters.
• C(m) is the black-market value of raw rhydonium per liter, which sits at about 450 credits on the Outer Rim Exchange.
• N(p) is the number of partisan casualties sustained during the extraction.
• C(p) is the recruitment, equipment, and training cost per fighter, estimated at 12,000 credits.
• C(e) is the cost of the specialized extraction device, roughly 8,500 credits.

If Wilmon successfully siphons 1,200 liters of fuel and the only casualty is the executed spy Pluti, the formula yields: ROI = ((1200 x 450) – (1 x 12000 + 8500)) / 8500 = (540000 – 20500) / 8500 = approximately 61.12, or a staggering 6,112 percent return. For a cash-strapped rebel cell, siphoning this fuel is a massive goldmine. It is no wonder Saw is willing to stand on a rainy, wind-swept cliff directly over an open valve to get his hands on it.

The Dark Secret of the Breathing Mask

This is where the story gets incredibly dark. When Wilmon opens the valve, highly toxic, raw rhydonium vapor begins to spew into the cold air. While the other Partisans stand back due to the severe chemical dangers, Saw stands directly over the fumes, breathing them in without a mask.

When a panicked Wilmon warns him of the extreme danger, Saw delivers a chilling monologue. He explains that the burning smell of rhydonium reminds him of his late sister, Steela, and the brutal labor camps of his homeworld, Onderon, where he was forced to mine the fuel under subhuman conditions. He tells Wilmon: “Revolution is not for the sane.” To prove his dedication, a weeping Wilmon removes his own mask and inhales the toxic fumes alongside Saw, cementing his place in the extremist cell.

Showrunner Tony Gilroy confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Saw’s breathing apparatus in Rogue One isn’t delivering oxygen. Over years of exposure, Saw developed a profound physical and psychological dependency on the toxic gas. This siphoning habit had devastating physical and mental consequences:

• The raw rhydonium fumes severely burned his lungs and vocal cords, perfectly explaining why his voice transitioned from his clear speaking patterns in The Clone Wars to his heavily strained, deep rasp in Andor and Rogue One.
• Rhydonium vapor acts as a powerful psychoactive agent, feeding his manic paranoia and mental decline.
• By the time of Rogue One, his brain is so damaged and his lungs so destroyed that he needs his respirator to constantly deliver low-dosage inhalations of rhydonium just to suppress severe withdrawal symptoms and maintain his chemical dependency.

This adds a massive layer of tragedy to his final moments on Jedha. When the Death Star’s superlaser strikes the Holy City, Saw refuses to run. Knowing he is about to die, he takes one last, deep drag from his mask, choosing to go out absolutely high on his favorite fuel.

Breaking Ties in the Series Finale

The final episode of Andor, titled Jedha, Kyber, Erso, is set in 1 BBY and serves as a direct handoff to the events of Rogue One. In this final chapter, we see Saw’s total break from the formal Rebel Alliance.

During a tense conference via holoprojector, Mon Mothma, Senator Bail Organa, and General Davits Draven confront Saw. Mon Mothma is furious because Saw’s Partisans have been hijacking Imperial supply transports on the desert moon of Jedha, which has forced the Empire to station a massive Star Destroyer, the Dauntless, directly over the city.

Saw reacts with open hostility, accusing Mon Mothma of placing spies in his group. Before cutting the transmission, he tells her: “You’re a better liar than a fighter.”

Bail Organa, who was recast in this episode with Benjamin Bratt replacing Jimmy Smits, openly declares that Saw is crazy. But General Draven confirms that the Partisans have an active, major operation on Jedha, prompting them to dispatch Cassian to the Ring of Kafrene to meet with Saw’s contact, Tivik. This transitions perfectly into the opening minutes of the 2016 film.

The Complete Canonical Timeline of Saw’s Downfall

Behind the Scenes Production Trivia

Getting to see how this character was developed behind the scenes makes the writing of Andor even more impressive. Here are some favorite production facts about Saw’s live-action portrayal:

• Screenwriter Gary Whitta confirmed that Forest Whitaker was the only actor ever considered for the live-action role in Rogue One, as the team wanted his unique ability to portray highly erratic, intensely emotional characters.
• The night before filming the Segra Milo scene in Season 1, Whitaker called director Toby Haynes to ask deep questions about kyber crystals and Saw’s personal history, leading to an impromptu rehearsal where Whitaker and Stellan Skarsgård completely rebuilt the scene’s incredible tension from scratch.
• Haynes wanted to end that scene on an extreme closeup of Saw’s face, so he had Whitaker repeat his speech about the different rebel factions over and over, telling him to go crazy with it to capture his fractured psyche.
• The brilliant idea to make Saw’s mask a rhydonium inhaler came from writer Beau Willimon, who called Tony Gilroy late one night with the pitch during the development of Season 2.
• Veteran voice actor Sam Witwer has a hidden cameo in Season 2 Episode 4, providing the offscreen radio voice that instructs Cassian on his fake fashion designer identity, Varian Skye.

Ultimately, Saw Gerrera serves as the ultimate warning of what happens when you lose sight of what you are fighting for. In his desperation to destroy the Empire, he became just as ruthless and uncaring as the monsters he sought to defeat, leaving behind a legacy written in fire, paranoia, and toxic gas fumes.