General Grievous - Behind The Scenes

Behind The Scenes

General Grievous was developed for Episode III as a powerful new villain on the side of the Separatists. The initial instructions that director George Lucas gave the Art Department were very open-ended: "a droid general". From that vague direction, the artists developed a lot of explorations, some purely mechanical, some not, for Grievous' look.

The initial design for General Grievous was created by Warren Fu as a design for the Magnaguard. That initial sketch was refined and made into a 1-foot (30 cm)-tall maquette sculpture. That was further refined when it was made into a realistic computer-generated model by Industrial Light & Magic. At the time, this was one of the most complicated models ever created by ILM, with many parts of differing physical qualities. General Grievous is completely computer-generated imagery in the movie. On set, Duncan Young read the lines off-screen, while Kyle Rowling wore a bluescreen or a greenscreen suit to act out the fights with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Also notable are the numerous contradictions between the expanded universe and the current Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series. In the Clone Wars, Grievous is depicted as having 4 fingers per arm, whereas in the original Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon, the general is depicted as having 5. Whereas the General Grievous of Star Wars: Clone Wars was fast, acrobatic, and powerful, the current General Grievous is depicted as slow, dim, and incompetent. Furthermore, his asthmatic cough and hunchbacked stance are already present despite having not gained them prior to his confrontation with Mace Windu. The constant 'retconning' of expanded universe and original content at the hands of Star Wars: The Clone Wars has sparked outrage among the fan base, for example the fact that Grievous has not won a single battle of any type Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The general's back story has also been changed by supervising director Dave Filoni, who stated that Grievous opted for surgery in order to gain powers that would allow him to rival a Jedi Knight. This is reinforced by the tenth episode of Season 1, 'Lair of Grievous', which suggested the general's transformation into a cyborg was a gradual process.