George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels weren’t appreciated in their own time, but contemporary kids loved those movies and they’ve since turned them into cult classics with thousands of YouTube hot takes and a subreddit full of memes. While the exact execution of the trilogy has its fair share of flaws, the storytelling at large deals with some compelling themes.
From seasoned pros like Samuel L. Jackson and Liam Neeson to relative newcomers (at least back then) like Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor, the prequel trilogy was filled with incredible actors. Those actors have starred in plenty of hidden gems over the years.
Natalie Portman: Annihilation (2018)
Alex Garland followed up his acclaimed directorial debut Ex Machina with a similarly acclaimed sophomore feature, Annihilation. Part of what killed the movie was the studio getting cold feet about its viability at the box office and selling the international distribution rights to Netflix.
Natalie Portman stars as a scientist who leads a team into “The Shimmer,” a strange extra-terrestrial presence spreading across Earth and mutating all animal and plant life in its path.
Liam Neeson: Silence (2016)
Making an instant icon out of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace is just one of Liam Neeson’s many achievements throughout his decades-long career. After becoming a revered dramatic performer with classics like Schindler’s List, Neeson reinvented himself as an action hero in 2008 with Taken.
Neeson has worked with Martin Scorsese a couple of times, including playing a supporting role in his underappreciated religious epic Silence, which stars Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as a pair of Jesuit priests trying to spread Catholicism in Japan.
Keira Knightley: Laggies (2014)
Padmé’s use of decoys gets a little confusing throughout the prequel trilogy. Sometimes, she appears as herself; other times, she uses a decoy. One of those decoys was played by Keira Knightley, who went on to become a huge star with roles in Love Actually and Pirates of the Caribbean.
In 2014, Knightley starred alongside Chloë Grace Moretz and Sam Rockwell in the late Lynn Shelton’s romantic comedy gem Laggies.
Jimmy Smits: Running Scared (1986)
There are plenty of classic buddy cop movies, from Lethal Weapon to 48 Hrs. to Bad Boys. One of the action subgenre’s most underrated entries is Running Scared, starring Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines.
Bail Organa actor Jimmy Smits made his big-screen debut in this movie in the role of Julio Gonzales. The film is about two streetwise Chicago cops taking on a drug dealer.
Rose Byrne: Instant Family (2018)
Rose Byrne only had a small role in the Star Wars prequels as one of Padmé’s closest confidantes, but thanks to hit movies like Bridesmaids and Neighbors, she’s since become a much bigger star.
In 2018, she starred with Mark Wahlberg in Instant Family, the heartwarming story of a couple adopting three siblings and adapting to the sudden change. The movie was inspired by the real-life experiences of director Sean Anders.
Joel Edgerton: It Comes At Night (2017)
It was recently announced that Joel Edgerton will reprise his role as the uncle that raised Luke Skywalker in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Edgerton recently starred in writer-director Trey Edward Shults’ hidden horror gem It Comes at Night.
Set during a mysterious pandemic, It Comes at Night is essentially a cautionary tale about mixing households, as a family takes in another family they’re not sure they can trust.
Ewan McGregor: Shallow Grave (1994)
Ewan McGregor’s most famous role prior to playing Obi-Wan Kenobi was that of heroin addict Mark Renton in Danny Boyle’s darkly comic classic Trainspotting. But before Trainspotting, McGregor and Boyle collaborated on a different crime comedy, Shallow Grave.
The movie sees three roommates bringing in a fourth tenant and finding him dead with a big bag of cash. Greed promptly pits them all against each other.
Terence Stamp: Bowfinger (1999)
Terence Stamp played Palpatine’s immediate predecessor Chancellor Valorum in The Phantom Menace, but since he hated working with greenscreens, he refused to return for Attack of the Clones. The Hollywood satire Bowfinger, directed by Yoda puppeteer Frank Oz, is one of Stamp’s most underrated movies.
Steve Martin stars as an unscrupulous movie producer who decides to make a movie with a major star, played by Eddie Murphy, without his knowledge. This involves secretly shooting around his personal life and casting his dorky twin brother, also played by Murphy.
Temuera Morrison: Once Were Warriors (1994)
While Temuera Morrison’s most famous role is undoubtedly clone template Jango Fett, as well as all the clones that were created with his DNA and grown-up Boba on The Mandalorian, his breakout role was in Once Were Warriors.
Morrison gives a powerful performance alongside Rena Owen and Cliff Curtis. The movie chronicles the ups and downs of a Māori family, touching on such serious subjects as alcoholism and domestic violence.
Samuel L. Jackson: Jackie Brown (1997)
Quentin Tarantino’s most underrated movie, Jackie Brown, is his only adaptation of previous source material: Elmore Leonard’s crime novel Rum Punch. Being beholden to source material resulted in arguably Tarantino’s most mature film.
Pam Grier stars as a flight attendant who plays a gun runner (Samuel L. Jackson) and the cops against each other with the aim to make off with the loot from an upcoming heist.