For many fans, the Star Wars mythos has been a constant companion. Generations of fans have followed the adventures of the saga’s memorable cast of characters, and the actors who brought them to life have left an indelible impression.
Since Star Wars has been a part of the pop culture landscape for so long, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the saga we know and love results from countless creative and technical decisions, as well as some coincidence and circumstance. You can’t think of Luke Skywalker without thinking of Mark Hamill, but did you know it might have been the guy from The Greatest American Hero instead?
Believe it or not, that’s not even the craziest casting that might have been.
Leonardo DiCaprio
In one of the more widely discussed alternative castings over the years, George Lucas seriously considered Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of Anakin in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Fresh off 1997’s blockbuster Titanic, Leo was, well, on top of the world and just about the right age, so it makes sense that Lucas would have sought him out. After meeting with Lucas, DiCaprio declined the role, feeling that it wasn’t right for him at the time. He seems to have done more or less alright since then, though.
Al Pacino
Another actor hot on the heels of an epic role, Al Pacino had his choice of roles in the mid-1970s after playing Michael Corleone in The Godfather. The role of Han Solo was his for the taking, he says, but he couldn’t understand the script. Apparently, while George could write the lines, not everyone could say them.
Chloe Grace Moretz
When Disney announced a fresh slate of films after purchasing the franchise from George Lucas, it seemed like half of Hollywood was under consideration for one role or another. Early on, Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy met with Michael Vaughn about directing what would become The Force Awakens. Chloe Grace Moretz was his choice for Kira — the protagonist ultimately named Rey. However, Kennedy disagreed with Vaughn’s darker vision for Episode VII and wanted a broader talent search for one of the sequel trilogy’s leading roles.
Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne already had a Tony Award for his stage work when he auditioned for the role of Kylo Ren. In a 2016 interview with Uproxx, he says he was given lines from Pride and Prejudice and told he was auditioning for a villain. He couldn’t resist an attempt at a voice worthy of the dark side of the Force. He seems to have a good sense of humor relating to the story and went on to star as the protagonist in the Fantastic Beasts series.
Saoirse Ronan
Saoirse Ronan was so excited to audition for a role in The Force Awakens that she couldn’t resist sharing the news. That seems relatable because who among us wouldn’t? She didn’t say which role she auditioned for, but since she mentioned getting to hold a lightsaber, many fans concluded it was Rey. Later, she regretted going public about her audition.
Paul Walker
Today, we know the late Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner in the Fast & Furious franchise. In the late 1990s, however, he auditioned for the role of teenage Anakin. In a 2000 interview, he admitted to being “bummed out” about not landing the part.
Michael Fassbender
In a late 2016 podcast interview, Michael Fassbender said he had spoken with J.J. Abrams about a role in The Force Awakens. He suggested that scheduling kept him from joining the cast. Although he didn’t mention which role he discussed with the director, rumors included Kylo Ren and General Hux.
Elizabeth Olsen
Elizabeth Olsen, known for her role as the Scarlet Witch in WandaVision and other Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, was another actor widely believed to be in the running for a role in the Sequel Trilogy. She’s not shy about her love of Star Wars, citing it as her favorite franchise, but her Marvel obligations prevented her from auditioning for Rey. Then again, she’s also suggested that perhaps playing the hero isn’t for her.
Michael B. Jordan
After seeing Michael B. Jordan in Creed and Black Panther, it might be difficult to picture him bombing an audition. In a 2021 appearance on the Just for Variety podcast promoting another film, Jordan said his audition for Finn might have been his “worst to date.” Not unlike Eddie Redmayne, he (and, for that matter, Tom Holland) found the audition script challenging to work with.
Jesse Plemons
A veteran of Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad, Jesse Plemons also read for a part in The Force Awakens. At the time, there were reports he would meet with J.J. Abrams, which he later said was enough for people to start prematurely congratulating him. He never said which role it was for, but some fan theories speculated that it was General Hux.
Ryan Phillipe
With roles in Crimson Tide and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Ryan Phillippe could have added Anakin to the list. In 2008, he told MTV News that he had made it as far as meeting with George Lucas and reading with Natalie Portman. He speculates that his age cost him the role, as he was older than Portman. Then again, he’s about the same age as DiCaprio, so maybe George just liked Leo better.
Kurt Russell
An actor since age 12 and one of Disney’s top stars by the early 1970s (including the lead role in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes), Kurt Russell was ready to transition to more adult work. He auditioned for the roles of both Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. After not hearing back for a while and needing work, he took a role on The Quest, a Western series.
Charles Martin Smith
Another actor who auditioned for Luke Skywalker was Charles Martin Smith, who had already worked with George Lucas on American Graffiti. However, at the time, George Lucas was reluctant to “reuse” actors from previous projects. Fortunately, Lucas decided to make an exception for Harrison Ford. Twice.
Orson Welles
In the pantheon of legendary voice performances, James Earl Jones, as the voice of Darth Vader, must rank near the top. Yet, as Jones said in a 2011 interview with the BBC, someone else almost voiced the Sith lord. According to Jones, George Lucas initially considered Orson Welles for the role. However, Lucas worried that audiences would too readily recognize the voice and instead cast the bombardier from Dr. Strangelove.
William Katt
William Katt was a relatively unknown actor when he auditioned for Luke Skywalker in a screen test with Kurt Russell. He didn’t get the role, but he caught Brian De Palma's eye and landed a part in Carrie before going on to star in The Greatest American Hero television series.
Christopher Walken
Already an actor for a decade (and trained dancer), Christopher Walken auditioned for the role of Han Solo (and if it sounds like a lot of people were up for that role, Walken says about 500 actors were auditioning). He didn’t get the part and said it’s probably just as well since he thinks he’d have been awful. Maybe he's right, but some of Han's lines might have sounded pretty entertaining in his unique delivery.
Cindy Williams
Even the role of Princess Leia, which we now identify so closely with Carrie Fisher, was initially up for grabs. Cindy Williams, who had already appeared in American Graffiti and had earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for her work in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, auditioned for the part. Like Charles Martin Smith, her established career and previous experience with George Lucas may be why she didn’t land the role. Of course, she would soon appear in Happy Days as Shirley Feeney, an appearance that launched the six-year run of Laverne & Shirley, which premiered in 1976.
Sylvester Stallone
Right after finishing Rocky, Sylvester Stallone was one of the many actors who auditioned for the part of Han Solo. As he relates the experience, George Lucas and Gary Kurtz knew before he made it very far that he wasn’t what they had in mind. He bears them no ill will and admits that “guys in space don’t have this kind of face.”
Jodie Foster
At one point, Carrie Fisher believed she had lost out to Jodie Foster. Although even younger than Fisher, she had already appeared in Taxi Driver and — perhaps making an exception to his preference for unknown talent — was reportedly George Lucas’s choice at one point. However, Foster was already making two back-to-back films. She doesn’t regret her choice, acknowledging it would have made for a very different career.
Burt Reynolds
Not everyone is as equanimous about not pursuing a part in the Star Wars universe. Despite Burt Reynolds having already appeared in several films by then, including 1972’s Deliverance and 1974’s The Longest Yard, George Lucas reportedly offered him the role. Reynolds said the role didn’t seem to be a good fit for him at the time, but later came to wish he’d taken it. Then again, if he had, would he still have been able to play the legendary Bandit?
Tupac Shakur
It’s as hard to think of someone other than Samuel L. Jackson playing Mace Windu, but Tupac Shakur reportedly auditioned for the part. In a 2014 interview, Death Row Records engineer Rick Clifford discussed his time working with Shakur, including the late rapper’s prospective movie roles. In one of them, he was going to read for George Lucas. “They wanted me to be a Jedi.” The Phantom Menace began shooting in 1997, less than a year after Shakur’s murder.
Toshiro Mifune
By now, Akira Kurosawa’s influence (especially 1958’s The Hidden Fortress) on George Lucas and Star Wars is well known. At one point, Lucas even wanted Toshiro Mifune, star of many of Kurosawa’s films, including Seven Samurai, to play the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. According to his daughter, Mika, however, Mifune was concerned the film would cheapen the samurai image.
Michael Jackson
Jar Jar Binks might be George Lucas’s favorite character, but it’s safe to say that’s not a universal opinion. Even though Ahmed Best’s performance was groundbreaking in filmmaking technology, the character drew a lot of backlash. In a 2015 interview, Ahmed Best said that Michael Jackson had wanted the role but envisioned wearing makeup and prosthetics instead of Lucas’s plan to use motion capture. Best also notes that Jackson would likely have been “bigger than the movie,” something he suspects Lucas would have wanted to avoid.
Jessica Henwick
After a process she called both long and arduous, Jessica Henwick lost out on the role of Rey to Daisy Ridley. After so much time and effort, she told The Hollywood Reporter that she “was a mess at the end of those six months.” Nevertheless, J.J. Abrams found a way to include her in the film, creating the role of Jess Pava. That made Henwick the first woman X-Wing pilot we’d see in action on screen. She described filming her scenes in a full-motion rig as “an incredible journey,” which seems like an understatement.
Aaron Paul
Early rumors surrounding the first spin-off or “anthology” film in the Star Wars franchise had Aaron Paul, Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, playing a younger version of Han Solo. Reporting from both MTV and Uproxx cited a post on a Star Wars rumor website, though that same post also had Gareth Edwards directing the Solo film, when he directed Rogue One. Take those early rumors with a grain of Crait-sized grain of salt.
Hugo Weaving
Having made an impression as Agent Smith in the original trilogy of The Matrix franchise and Red Skull in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, Hugo Weaving certainly had the credentials to play a Star Wars villain. In early 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that, according to two sources, Weaving had met with J.J. Abrams to play “an Imperial commander.” A 2015 Yahoo article equated this to General Hux, while other speculation seemed to assume he would have played Kylo Ren. In that line of thinking, as the story evolved and writers established the main antagonist as the son of Han and Leia, the role required a younger actor.
Jennifer Lawrence
Very early in pre-production for The Force Awakens, insiders claimed that Jennifer Lawrence ranked among one of the early favorites for a starring role in the new trilogy. Having won an Academy Award for Silver Linings Playbook and set a 2015 Guinness World Record for highest-grossing action movie heroine as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games franchise, Lawrence seemed a natural choice. However, much like George Lucas before him, J.J. Abrams ultimately decided against auditioning her in favor of less well-known talent.
Shailene Woodley
Another actress that early rumors connected with the role of Rey, Shailene Woodley had yet to achieve Jennifer Lawrence-levels of fame at the time. She starred in the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager at the time, and later went on to roles in The Fault in Our Stars, Big Little Lies, and The Divergent Series. If anyone ever contacted her about a prominent role in Star Wars, let alone auditioned her, she hasn’t let on so far. In a 2015 interview promoting The Divergent Series: Insurgent, she called herself “a total geek” for the original Star Wars trilogy and expressed excitement for the sequels. In a 2020 interview with Conan O’Brien, she (understandably) said that she wouldn’t turn down a lead role in Star Wars, but also admitted she’d have fun being a Stormtrooper.
This article originally appeared at wealthofgeeks.com