of Teal'c was conceptualised as a way of introducing the Goa'uld and Jaffa elements of the show's story. As Teal'c was an alien, Glassner wanted the actor to look "somewhat unique" and have a "strong, intimidating presence". Christopher Judge first learnt of the part from a friend's roommate, who was also reading for the part and told his agent he would leave their agency unless they got him an audition for the role. Upon first glance of the script, Judge assumed it was going to "yet another example of where the big, tough black guy is your stereotypical reformed slave", but upon reading it properly he realised that there was the chance to let "'the guy with the muscle' be the one who might just lead his people away from slavery". When Judge entered the room to audition, Wright turned to Glassner and said "ok - that's him", to which Glassner whispered "please God, let him be able to act". Judge, who had longer hair at the time, was asked to go bald for the role. The role of General Hammond was originally imagined by Wright and Glassner as a black American man, resembling politician, diplomat, and United States Army four-star general Colin Powell. When Anderson and Greenburg came onboard they brought Don S. Davis in to audition, having worked with him on Macgyver. Shooting the pilot, director Mario Azzopardi wanted Davis to portray the character as a stereotypical military general, with Davis calling Hammond "by-the-book" and a "foil for O'Neill", believing the character to be two-dimensional and a poor representation of what the United States military was really like. Davis, having served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War criticized Azzopardi's "limited imagination", and as the show progressed successfully encouraged Wright and Glassner to write his character to be a more well-rounded, better representation of a military general. The role of the antagonist, Apophis, was filled by Peter Williams. Williams had originally auditioned for the part of Teal'c. Williams cut his dreadlocked hair off for the role, with Azzopardi suggesting that Williams look at people with delusions of grandeur for research, with Williams using Benito Mussolini as a template. Sha're (originally spelled Sha'uri) was another character taken from the feature film. Vaitiare Bandera, who had been unsuccessful auditioning for the role as the character in the feature film was cast in the pilot. Bandera agreed to a