When George Lucas was casting the lead roles in what the studio considered to be a weird little space movie that they were going to bury upon release, Star Wars, the actors who were auditioning had no idea what kind of iconic roles they were up for.
By the time he was casting the prequel trilogy, the actors auditioning did know how iconic their roles would be, but the pressure alone was enough to put some of them off. Disney’s recent movies even have a couple of memorable characters in them. So, here are 10 Actors Who Almost Played Iconic Star Wars Roles.
Michael Jackson as Jar Jar Binks
The King of Pop was eager to play the now-despised character of Jar Jar Binks, but he wanted to use prosthetics and makeup like he did for the “Thriller” video, whereas Lucas was hoping to use CGI to bring the character to life. Ahmed Best, who eventually played the role, found out that Jackson had once been considered for it when he met him backstage at a concert with Lucas and Lucas introduced him to Jackson as “Jar Jar.”
It’s fair to say that Jackson’s take on the character would’ve been different, but if he still had his “meesa/yousa” dialect, then he probably couldn’t have done much to prevent the character from grating on audiences.
Rooney Mara as Jyn Erso
Arguably, Rogue One is by far the best and most popular of Disney’s new Star Wars movies. It’s been reported that before Gareth Edwards cast Felicity Jones to play the lead role of Jyn Erso in the movie, he met with Rooney Mara about the part.
Mara is a fantastic actor, as proven by her acclaimed turns in movies like Carol and Her and Side Effects, and she was previously robbed of the chance to lead a tentpole franchise when audiences didn’t take to David Fincher’s dark Hollywood adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Jones was a great Jyn, but Mara probably would’ve been, too.
Sylvester Stallone as Han Solo
Although he never made it past the casting call stage, Sylvester Stallone was once up for the role of Han Solo in the first Star Wars movie. Looking back on it, the Italian Stallion remembers that George Lucas dismissed him for the part almost immediately.
He certainly would’ve had an interesting take on the roguish Corellian space pirate, but the role of Han was made for Harrison Ford. Stallone would end up becoming an overnight sensation in Hollywood one year before Star Wars came out when he was Oscar-nominated for both writing and starring in the first of many Rocky movies.
Eddie Redmayne as Kylo Ren
The script for The Force Awakens was still in its earliest stages when Eddie Redmayne came in to audition to play Kylo Ren, so the lines he read were not Kylo Ren’s lines. He was simply told that the character he was auditioning to play was a villain, so he put on an over-the-top villain voice and the producers decided he wasn’t what they were looking for.
It’s hard to blame Redmayne for botching the audition with such limited material, but playing a villain requires more than just a villain voice. Adam Driver has proven that with his nuanced portrayal of Kylo Ren.
Gary Oldman as General Grievous
George Lucas originally cast Gary Oldman to play General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith, but it didn’t come together. One unconfirmed, but common rumor is that Lucas was making the movie outside of the Screen Actors Guild and union politics forced Oldman to pull out.
In the end, an audio engineer working on the movie named Matthew Wood submitted an audition anonymously to avoid bias and the producers ended up choosing him for the role. Perhaps having Oldman in the role would’ve distracted audiences, because we would’ve just seen Gary Oldman, whereas Wood’s voice allows us to see Grievous as Grievous.
Orson Welles as Darth Vader
As soon as George Lucas found David Prowse, he knew he’d found the guy with the right stature and look to play Darth Vader. But Prowse’s voice didn’t have the menace to be how the character sounded. Initially, Lucas wanted the legendary Orson Welles to provide Vader’s voice, and the Citizen Kane director was even open to it.
Eventually, Lucas realized that if he was going to make Vader a truly iconic and memorable villain, he would need to have a voice of his own, and Welles’ voice was just too recognizable. So, James Earl Jones got the part and nailed it.
Saoirse Ronan as Rey
Very early on in the development of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams was considering Saoirse Ronan for the part of Rey. Ronan has said that she was so thrilled just to be auditioning for a Star Wars movie that she didn’t mind not getting it.
In the end, the producers decided to go with an unknown actor, like Lucas had done with the lead roles of the original Star Wars movie. So, they ended up casting Daisy Ridley – who, until then, had only had one major film role in The Inbetweeners 2, and her scene was cut from the final movie – to play Rey.
Tupac Shakur as Mace Windu
Before his tragic passing, Tupac Shakur had been taking meetings with George Lucas about playing Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Apparently, Shakur had been interested in starting an acting career, so he’d been meeting with directors and producers about the possibility of taking some on-screen roles.
The highest-profile of these gigs was easily the role of Windu, and it was the one that Shakur was most excited about – he really wanted to play a Jedi – but after the hip-hop icon was killed, Lucas had to recast the role and chose Pulp Fiction’s Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson.
Jodie Foster as Princess Leia
When Carrie Fisher came in to audition for the role of Princess Leia, George Lucas got a two-for-one deal. Not only was she perfect for the character; she was also a gifted writer who punched up the script’s dialogue on the set. While Fisher seems like a no-brainer for Leia, Lucas was considering Jodie Foster at one point.
She was a child actress coming off a star-making turn as a teenage prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, so her take on the character probably wouldn’t have had as much humor or attitude as Fisher’s. Still, it could’ve been different, but interesting.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Anakin Skywalker
Back when he was one of the brightest young stars in Hollywood (as opposed to today, when he’s one of the brightest middle-aged stars in Hollywood), Leonardo DiCaprio was up for the part of Anakin Skywalker in the second and third Star Wars prequel movies.
At the time, DiCaprio was known for his roles in films like Titanic and The Beach and he wasn’t ready for a two-blockbuster commitment. He probably would’ve given us a much more nuanced portrayal of Anakin than Hayden Christensen ended up giving us, and it wouldn’t have had the devastating effect on the longevity of DiCaprio’s career that it had on Christensen’s.