TheForce.Net - Episode III - Just The Facts

Just The Facts: Story & Characters

Maintained By -Commander_Thigh-

Last Updated: February 6th, 2005

Please note, the info in this section contains spoilers.

Aayla Secura
Anakin Skywalker
Bail Organa
C-3PO
Chewbacca
Clonetroopers
Count Dooku
Creatures
Droids
EU Character
General Grievous
Jar Jar Binks
Ki-Adi-Mundi
Luke & Leia
Mace Windu
Mon Mothma
Nute Gunray & Neimodians
Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi
Owen & Beru Lars

Padmé Skywalker
Palpatine
R2-D2
Tion Meddon
Wookiees
Yoda
Other Character Info

The Duel
Fights & Battles

Timeline
Color & Theme
Plot Points
Ships & Vehicles
Scenes
Sets & Locations

Overall

(Blue text indicates an update)

General Grievous

The design crew worked very hard to make the new bad guy in Ep3 visually distinctive. - RC
"Expect someone serious as the new villain." - RM
The new bad guy has a lot of screen time, a memorable role, and he is central to the plot. - RC
Animatics have done pre-visualization for the new bad guy and "he is one bad mother". -DG
The new bad guy has connections to Darth Sidious. - PH
The "new bad guy" is not referring to Darth Vader. It will be an original, separate villain. - PH
The new bad guy has some electronic alteration done to his voice. - BB
We will get our first look at the new villain in 2004. - PE
The new villain is in the vein of old-style serial villains. Someone who revels in villainry. - PH
The new bad guy did not appear in the original trilogy. - PH
You get just enough from the movies to establish the new villain's role and importance. The EU, of course, will flesh things out with George's blessing. - PH
The new villain has a space ship and will use it. He also has several other modes of transportation. - PH
Grievous contributes to fun serial inspirations of Star Wars but also contributes to the darker moments in Episode III. - PH
General Grievous is about 1.905 meters tall. - PH
Much of Grievous' origins will be handled by Licensing (EU). - PH
"...the military leader of all the Separatist armies. He's part alien and part robot, a master strategist and the greatest hand-to-hand Jedi killer the galaxy has ever known."- RM
General Grievous will make his way to all forms of publishing before Episode III is released. - PH
The voice of Grievous in the Clone Wars cartoon is not the same voice that will be heard in the Ep3 film. - PH
The 'evil child' Grievous concept art did not make it into Ep3. - PH
What Pablo likes the most about General Grievous is his dialogue. - PH
General Grievous is the military commander. Count Dooku is the political leader. The rest of the Separatist Union acts as a leadership committee. - PH
Yoda will not fight the new villain. - PH
The Insider pic of Grievous is an illustration and not the CG model. - PH
Grievous will not "force-lift" any Jedi or snap any necks. - PH
"Grievous is not a mindless killer monster scary, but to me, he's a great mix of an old fashioned sci-fi villain clothed in very modern style and accessories. He's the kind of villain that seems to wallow in villainry." - PH
The bodyguards of Grievous do not have names or unique personalities. - PH
Grievous' henchmen are fairly mindless, personality-less droids. - PH
General Grievous' character did not replace what was originally intended for Boba Fett. - PH
General Grievous has a lot more dialogue than Darth Maul did in Ep1. - PH
The weapon used by Grievous' henchmen does not shut off a lightsaber blade, it is basically a quarter staff that deflects a lightsaber. - PH
Grievous has two blasters in addition to his captured lightsabers. - PH
We will see Grievous without the mask (face exposed) sometime during Ep3. - PH
Grievous has yet to appear in a finished shot. - OS
Animation of General Grievous and Obi-Wan Kenobi engaged in a bare-knuckle brawl is being developed and approved. - OS
The CG model of Grievous is finished and approved. - OS
"It's not until we have a voice for [General Grievous] and can record a guide track for him next month that we can really start animating his character." - RM
As Episode III begins, intrepid Jedi Knights infiltrate the most secure areas of Grievous' flagship, to spoil his plans of victory over Coruscant. - OS
Grievous fits into Episode III well and is a necessity to the story. He's pretty important to the completion of a very specific story arc. - PH
Grievous' model is finished, but he hasn't been added to any shots yet. - PH
The cartoon version of General Grievous is larger than the Episode III version. - PH
There are aspects to Grievous that are not in the Official Site's databank entry. The entry isn't complete, and will be added to over the next year. - PH
Grievous' alien parts are of a species unknown to us. - PH
Physically, the cartoon version of Grievous is capable of things the CG model for Episode III won't allow. - PH
The alien part of Grievous is a character we've never seen before. - PH
The voice of General Grievous hasn't been cast yet, but as soon as someone signs, the information will be posted. - PH
Grievous was not once Sifo-Dyas. - PH
We will not see Grievous in Palpatine's antechamber (private office), nor on Coruscant, in Episode III. - PH
Shaak Ti is not murdered by General Grievous. - PH
The material that composes Grievous' mask is still being determined. In one scene, John Knoll suggested that it chip rather than bend. - PH
Grievous speaks Basic (English), and it's accented. - PH
Grievous has two body guards. - PH
Rob is putting all of Grievous' close-up dialogue shots on hold until he receives the audio. - RC
Rob doesn't know what Grievous' mask/armor is made of. - RC
Some walking and movement shots of Grievous have been finaled in animation, but have yet to be rendered. - RC
ILM will be trying to portray Grievous' attitude and emotions through body performance and posture. He will have expressive eyes. - RC
Grievous is the most complicated creature that ILM has ever built. - RC
Grievous is so complicated that the modeler had to build everything by hand inside the computer. - RC
Grievous and Vader are very different villains. - RC
Grievous is in the sinister, creeping vein, cunning and skulking, yet ruthless and powerful. - RC
At the moment, ILM is actively working on an action sequence with Grievous. - RC
Rob's guess to when we should see the first images of Grievous in action would be the trailer. - RC
No part of Grievous' face will move during dialogue. Rob says that it's just the eyes. - RC
Some actions that Grievous performs in the cartoon will look different in Episode III. - RC
Aayla Secura does not have any scenes with General Grievous. - AA
While Obi-Wan sneaks around in his search for General Grievous, he speaks a very classic Alec Guinness line. - OS
One question pondered was how fast Grievous should fall while wearing a cape. - OS
One sequence is General Grievous' approach to the planet Utapau. The first shot is the shuttle approaching the planet from orbit, the next is an aerial shot of the shuttle over the landscape. Proceeding that is a shot of the ship coming to rest in a landing bay, Grievous' exit and march across the landing bay, and the final shot of him entering a lift to meet with his Separatist toadies. - OS
The Jedi objective of Battle of Coruscant is spotted on a display screen -- the Invisible Hand, flagship of General Grievous. - OS
Secured in a private landing platform on Utapau is General Grievous' personal starfighter. - OS
General Grievous is a brilliant military fighter and commander of the droid armies. He was trained in lightsaber combat by the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus, making him a particularly deadly opponent for the Jedi. - AFCB
On Obi-Wan's mission to find General Grievous and bring an end to the Clone Wars, he flies with R4-G9 on his starfighter's wing. - OS
When Obi-Wan Kenobi visits the sinkhole-riddled planet of Utapau, searching for General Grievous, Tion does what he can to be helpful. - OS
There are several finished shots of Grievous; his look has been locked down for a while, though his voice has yet to be determined. - PH
Grievous' personal starfighter will not have a name. - PH
As Obi-Wan Kenobi tracks down General Grievous on Utapau, he confronts the droid general and his IG 100 MagnaGuards on the Tenth Level of a massive sinkhole city. The environment and the combatants will be realized through miniature and digital effects -- on set, Ewan McGregor had to fight against members of the Stunt Department dressed in blue and green while off-set dialogue reader Duncan Young provided Grievous' snarling dialogue. - OS

Quad turbolasers lining General Grievous' flagship pound out deadly beams of energy at the swarming Republic forces. - OS

The Separatists' chief of staff, General Grievous, and his bodyguards are a true match for even the most skilled Jedi fighters. - Insider #80

Obi-Wan believes that once he eliminates General Grievous, it will end the war. - Homing Beacon #127

When General Grievous barks his orders, his minions scurry to carry out their tasks. His is a commanding presence, and his fearsome demeanor leaves no room for questions. His implacable metallic skeleton gives him the aspect of a droid, but hidden inside the armored carapace is an unwholesome, living being. To remind viewers of this inner Grievous, his words are occasionally punctuated with a hard, wet hacking cough -- suggesting that Grievous is literally rotten to the core. - Homing Beacon #128

Providing the voice of Grievous is Matthew Wood. - Homing Beacon #128

"[Grievous] is definitely an evil character. He's the leader of the droid army, but not a droid. He feels things; he feels things extremely, I would say. It's a lot of yelling, and shouting out orders, so [the voice] had a lot of drill sergeant to it." - MW

In the finished film, Grievous' voice will undergo some sort of processing. Currently, it is lowered in pitch and has a ring modulation to it. That may change as the audio mix is still being put together. - Homing Beacon #128

In the years since the onset of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi has become a Jedi Master serving as a General in the ongoing war against the Separatists. After rescuing Chancellor Palpatine from the clutches of General Grievous, the dreaded commander of the droid armies, Obi-Wan tracks Grievous to the sinkhole planet of Utapau, where he must destroy him if the war is to end. - MR

Grievous hunches when he walks and uses the cape to great dramatic effect. It's when he rises to his full height that you realize he means business. - PH

Acronym Key:

GL = George Lucas (Director)
OS = Official Site (starwars.com)
RM = Rick McCallum (Producer)
CF = Colin Fletcher (First Assistant Director)
NP = Natalie Portman (Actress)
HC = Hayden Christensen
RB = Roger Barton (Film Editor)
IM = Ian McDiarmid (Actor)
GT = Genndy Tartakovsky (Clone Wars Animated Series Creator)
C2 = Celebration II
BB = Ben Burtt (Sound Editor)
JEJ = James Earl Jones (Voice Actor)
JK = John Knoll (Visual Effects/ILM)
PE = Paul Ens (Official Site)
GB = Gavin Bocquet (Production Designer)
JE = Joel Edgerton (Actor)
PM = Peter Mayhew (Actor)
RC = Rob Coleman (Visual Effects/ILM Supervisor)
AA = Amy Allen (Actress)
BS = Bruce Spence (Actor)
BL = Bai Ling (Actress)
CSC = Caroline de Souza Correa (Actress)
NG = Nikki Gooley (Makeup Supervisor)
JB = Jon Berg (Modelmaker)
EL = Euisung Lee (Animatics Artist)
LP = Lorne Peterson (Modelmaker)
DW = David Weitzberg (Visual Effects Artist)
MR = Master Replicas (Prop Replica Company)
DE = Dave Elsey (Creature Shop Creative Supervisor)
AD = Anthony Daniels (Actor)
MW = Matthew Wood (Supervising Sound Editor/Voice Actor)
TB = Trisha Biggar (Costume Designer)
SLJ = Samuel L. Jackson (Actor)
PH = Pablo Hidalgo (Official Site, Webcam)
RC = Ryan Church (Concept Artist)
DG = Dan Gregoire (Pre-Visualization Effects Supervisor)
DB = Don Bies (Droid Unit Supervisor)
NG = Nick Gillard (Stunt Coordinator/Swordmaster)
THC = Topps Heritage Card
AFCB = Action Figure Card Back
MK = Michael Kingma (Actor)
CL = Christopher Lee (Actor)
JL = James Luceno (Writer)
BG = Brian Gernand (Model Supervisor)