50 Roles for 50 Actors: Dream casting the Star Wars saga

Dream casting the Star Wars saga: Kiefer Sutherland as General Grievous

General Grievous is a character who must have done a lot of hard living before we meet him in Revenge of the Sith. For instance, what happened to his body? I mean, he wasn’t born with four metal arms and a chrome exoskeleton, was he? And then after he got his robot body, how did he develop a bad wheeze? The guy spends most of his scenes breathing heavily like he’s on a respirator. In fact, he might be—maybe there’s one built into his suit.

I mean, does he even have lungs anymore? Sorry—I’m getting off-track. The ongoing mysteries of General Grievous aside, we’ll want someone with a distinctive voice to play him since a voice is pretty much the only part of Grievous that isn’t rendered in a computer, although I’m sure it’s digitally enhanced somehow. Kiefer Sutherland spent nine years growling his way through 24 as Jack Bauer, and his raspy tones would make a good fit for the character.

Plus, Sutherland has experience with voice acting. He provided the voice for Solid Snake in the latest Metal Gear Solid game, and if he’s good enough for an iconic character like Snake, he should be able to handle General Grievous.

Next: Meet the Organas