Over forty years since its launch, the Star Wars franchise has continued to grow, attracting interest from many world-renowned actors eager to lend their experience for an opportunity to appear in the franchise. There are several big names who auditioned for Star Wars, but for many reasons they never got cast. Here are eight of actors who auditioned but never made it: –
Al Pacino
Al Pacino, winner of the best actor Oscar at the 1993 Academy Awards for Scent of a Woman and best known for his portrayal mafia boss Michael Corleone in The Godfather films, was lined up to play the role of Han Solo in the original Star Wars film. Unfortunately, he did not understand the script and he cites this reason for turning down the opportunity to be cast as the infamous smuggler and captain of the Millennium Falcon.
Saoirse Ronan
It seems that numerous actresses read for the role of Rey for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, before Daisy Ridley was eventually picked. The Brooklyn born actress Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) was one of those who auditioned for the role in 2013 admitting that so has everyone. Whilst Ronan did not get the role, she has gone on record to say that she appreciated the fact that she had so much fun during the auditions — probably as much as one could have on Betway88 online sports betting, though we’re not sure if Star Wars auditions could be considered a sport.
Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender has said that he and The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams had a conversation about a role in film, but he had already signed on to another project when filming was scheduled and could not commit. Fassbender has not let on which role he was in discussion to play but many believe it was either for Poe Dameron or Kylo Ren.
Jodie Foster
It is difficult to imagine anyone else other than Carrie Fisher in the role of Princess Leia, but Jodie Foster was one of several actresses who went for the role. Foster has gone on record as saying that she was doing two other films back-to-back at the time (Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone) and whilst it may have been fun and taken her career on a different path, she is happy with what she did and where she ended up.
Leonardo Dicaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio and George Lucas had a conversation about DiCaprio playing the role of Anakin Skywalker in the second and third prequel films, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Ultimately the actor said that he did not feel ready to take that dive at that point in his career. The role was given to Hayden Christensen, and not even the bettors at Betway88 know if taking the role could have increased DiCaprio’s chances of winning an Oscar earlier in his career.
Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell auditioned for two roles in Star Wars; Han Solo and Skywalker. Whilst he got down to the final two for the role of Luke, against Mark Hamill, before he knew if he had been cast, he chose to act in the western television series called The Quest. He has recently said that he has no regrets and that he moved on.
Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne auditioned for the part of Kylo Ren in the sequel trilogy. He said the Star Wars audition was “pretty catastrophically bad” and that “after seven times of trying to play a baddie” he was asked if he had anything else, it was at this moment he knew his childhood dream had been crushed.
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman was down to play the role of General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith, but he did not take the role because the production was a non-Screen Actors Guild (SAG) film and he did not want to be disloyal. Ten years on he was approached for a role in The Force Awakens but that role did not come to fruition either.
Bottom Line
There are even more well-known actors that took part in the auditions process for Star Wars but never made it to the cast. We will take another look some of those in a future story. Congratulations to all those that have made it past the audition stage to become part of Star Wars lore.
