If we think about the most iconic villains of Star Warsit is inevitable to remember the diabolical General Grievous, droid leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and Kaleesh warrior before his conversion.
George Lucas, who celebrates his 80th birthday today, has always had a special talent for creating villains in the Star Wars saga. Grievous is no exception.
The droid general debuted in the 2D animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in the time between the releases of Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). In the work of Genndy Tartakovskyhe presented himself as an implacable and cold warrior.
Things changed in Revenge of the Sith, as he was not as ruthless as before. Yes indeed, its impressive design and his charisma They made him one of the great villains of the saga.
How was the character created? It is something that many fans may have asked themselves, and that the members of Lucasfilm revealed in an old issue of Star Wars Insider magazine.
This is possible thanks to the Archive website, which collects tons of old publications. In this case, you can see Grievous’s first designs and sketches.
Grievous is not a T-800 or Robocop
Under the direction of George Lucas, the Lucasfilm design team set to work on the General Grievouswho was supposed to be a CSI droid army officer in Star Wars.
Despite its robotic condition, the idea is that Grievous was more of an androidwith some organic parts of his previous body Kaleesh. The team had to play with this idea, without making it look 100% cyborg.
This is what the conceptual design supervisor says Ryan Church:
”George wanted there to be a push and pull between the organic and the mechanical in his design.”. In the end, the creator of Star Wars was left with Warren Fu’s design, which left many doubts about the origin of the character, something that Lucas liked.
Of course, a clear premise that George Lucas put to the team is that Grievous should not look like a copy of Terminator or Robocopnor from a droid previously seen in Star Wars.
Under the need to have a menacing appearance, Lucas and supervisor Ryan Church sought a balance with innovations.
”We didn’t want to go anywhere they’d gone before in Star Wars, Terminator or Robocop, all of which could have influenced the design.”.
Finally, the Lucasfilm team came up with the perfect design, which It has remained in Star Wars series, games and comics after the premiere of Revenge of the Sith.
Although General Grievous is typical of the era of the Star Wars prequels, we can still see him in recent series such as Chronicles of the Empire, composed of animated shorts, which is available on Disney Plus. Did you know that his death in Episode III was going to be much more violent?
