If you had suggested that the main actors behind franchises like James Bond and Mad Max would feature in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Star Wars cameos, they would probably assume you’d just touched down from a galaxy far, far away.
However, Star Wars is big business these days and big businesses tends to attract big talent. Some have already hit the big time, while others might be on the cusp of it.
Where once unknown actors could be found occupying the various background roles of stormtroopers, X-wing pilots, and Imperial Guards, now many of these roles are being taken up by rising stars and established names eager to get involved in all things Star Wars.
It’s an approach that speaks volumes for the enduring appeal of the intergalactic sci-fi franchise. Almost all of these actors grew up watching Star Wars, quoting lines, playing with imaginary lightsabers, and doing their very best breathy Darth Vader impressions.
It’s little wonder then that, when the opportunity to play a role came up, however small it may be, they found it too good an offer to refuse.
Even so, the remarkable array of A-list talent that can be found hiding in the background and underneath an assortment of helmets in Star Wars movies is truly remarkable.
It’s not just limited to actors either, with pop stars popping up with roles you definitely never noticed the first time around.
That’s what this list is all about. A celebration of the big names that took on small parts in the name of the Force. Some you’ll know and some you won’t here are 25 A-Lister Cameos You Completely Missed In Star Wars Movies.
Daniel Craig in The Force Awakens
James Bond popped up as a First Order stormtrooper in The Force Awakens. However, he makes for a far more effective 007 than he does soldier of the Galactic Empire.
He’s the one tasked with watching over Daisy Ridley’s Rey mid-way through the movie.
He does a pretty poor job, succumbing to her emerging Force-wielding abilities in a matter of minutes.
Craig landed the role while doing preparation work for Spectre at Pinewood Studios in England. Work on The Force Awakens was in full swing at the studio and the British actor had a friend on set who was able to blag him the part - even if he is a little short to be a stormtrooper.
Richard Armitage in The Phantom Menace
Richard Armitage has had to work hard to get onto the A-list. Though he might look a little like a knock-off Hugh Jackman, he’s proved himself a capable actor on the big and small screen.
Most movie fans probably know him as Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of dwarves in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit prequel trilogy. Most TV buffs, meanwhile, will recall his chilling turn as Francis Dolarhyde, the terrifying Tooth Fairy from the excellent Hannibal.
He’s even turned his hand to superhero work after lending his voice to the Marvel original podcast drama series Wolverine: The Long Night.
All that and he appears as an unnamed Naboo Bravo 6 starfighter pilot in The Phantom Menace.
George Lucas in Revenge of the Sith
The man behind the entire Star Wars saga resisted the urge to put himself in one of his movies for 28 years before finally cracking in Revenge of the Sith.
Maybe the pressure of working on the unpopular prequel trilogy got to him, because George Lucas’ appearance in the movie ranks among the most peculiar in the franchise.
He plays the blue-skinned alien statesman and playwright Baron Papanoida.
It’s an odd role not exactly befitting of Lucas. Though it probably went unnoticed by most fans the first time around, once you do spot the sight of a strangely blue Lucas, it’s hard not to find it more jarring than a bit of Jar Jar Binks dialogue.
Sofia Coppola in The Phantom Menace
Filmmaker and actress Sofia Coppola appears as one of Padmé’s handmaidens in The Phantom Menace.
It’s not a huge role but it’s one that Coppola considered a hugely valuable experience.
Having flopped as an actress in The Godfather Part III, she was preparing to make her directorial debut The Virgin Suicides at the time.
She asked George Lucas, who was a close friend of the family and had previously collaborated with her dad, Francis Ford Coppola, whether she could observe him on set.
He offered her one better: a small role and the perfect vantage point on Lucas at work. It evidently did the trick, with The Virgin Suicides earning rave reviews upon release.
Warwick Davis in The Phantom Menace
Warwick Davis was a nobody when he first took the role of Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi - a part he reprised for the often-forgotten Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and its follow-up Ewoks: The Battle of Endor.
By the time 1999’s The Phantom Menace rolled around, however, Davis was a bonafide star in his own right thanks to movies like Willow and the enduring Leprechaun horror franchise.
It, therefore, might surprise some fans to learn he’s also the actor behind Weazel, the arms dealer who turns up at the Boonta Eve Classic Podrace alongside the greedy, hook-nosed merchant, Watto.
Thankfully, Davis’ role hasn’t aged quite as badly.
Joseph Gordon Levitt in The Last Jedi
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a special relationship with Rian Johnson, the director of The Last Jedi. He’s appeared in every one of Johnson’s movies to date, starting with his neo-noir debut Brick and continuing on into the world of Star Wars.
Gordon-Levitt plays Sloven Lo, the Canto Bight beach-dwelling alien who rats Finn and Rose out to the police.
It’s a tricky cameo to spot, but the key thing is to listen out for the alien with the distinctive Jersey accent, which Gordon-Levitt adopted for his directorial debut Don John and appears happy to wheel it out again here.
Noah Segan shares the distinction of appearing in every Johnson movie, playing Stomeroni Starck in The Last Jedi.
Simon Pegg in The Force Awakens
Simon Pegg is part of a select group of actors who have appeared in both a Star Trek and Star Wars movie.
The Shaun of the Dead star is better known for playing the Enterprise’s long-suffering engineer Scotty, in the JJ Abrams reboots, but he was also roped in for a role in The Force Awakens.
He plays Unkar Plutt, the greedy, morally reprehensible junk trader who Rey encounters early on.
He’s the guy who gives her a measly lot of food rations in exchange for a raft of valuable items.
Hidden under a wealth of prosthetics, this represents a change of pace for Pegg, as he is better known for playing good guys.
Ellie Goulding in The Last Jedi
You would be forgiven for missing pop star Ellie Goulding’s cameo appearance in The Last Jedi. After all, she’s not even sure whether she’s in it.
In the wake of the movie’s release, Goulding tweeted out: “Has anybody seen Star Wars yet and seen someone who resembles me in it… awkward if I got cut. Haha.”
It’s still unclear as to whether Goulding did make the final cut, largely because she’s not actually specified her role.
She did offer one more clue, though, while tweeting in reaction to rumours that her part ended up on the cutting room floor.
“Either way it was a really awesome experience. Great to be in the rebel army for a day :),” she said.
Tom Hardy in The Last Jedi
Though the man himself has always denied it, it was Star Wars actor John Boyega who first spilt the beans about Tom Hardy’s cameo in The Last Jedi.
Hardy plays a Stormtrooper in the movie, but anyone seeking out his part is likely to be disappointed. According to a report from NME, Hardy’s scene was cut from the theatrical release.
He featured as yet another useless stormtrooper who encounters and fails to apprehend an incognito Rose, Finn, and DJ while aboard the Supremacy.
Fans will get a chance to see Hardy in action, though: the sequence was included as part of 20 minutes of deleted scenes that can be found on the Blu-ray and DVD release.
Edgar Wright in The Last Jedi
Edgar Wright took to social media to confirm his appearance in The Last Jedi. The Baby Driver filmmaker shared a picture on Twitter of himself alongside his brother, Oscar, and fellow directors Joe Cornish and Leo Thompson.
“If you are looking for my cameo in Star Wars: The Last Jedi this is my grubby Resistance costume,” he wrote, alongside an image of the foursome, kitted out in some familiar looking Star Wars garb.
It’s unclear how they landed the roles, though it’s worth mentioning that Cornish previously directed John Boyega in his breakthrough effort Attack The Block.
Wright evidently has a good relationship with Rian Johnson, thanking the director for making their dream come true.
Justin Theroux in The Last Jedi
Arguably the biggest surprise appearance in The Last Jedi came courtesy of The Leftovers star Justin Theroux.
He plays the rather dashing, mustachioed, Master Codebreaker alongside model and actress Lily Cole. It’s Theroux who steals the limelight, though, in what amounts to a surprisingly meaty cameo role - if there is such a thing.
He’s the reason why Finn and Rose head to Canto Bright. Not that he ends up being much help to the resistance, preferring instead to try and pick up women while simultaneously gambling his fortune away.
He does bring Benicio del Toro’s DJ into proceedings, though, which is either a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.
Gareth Edwards in The Last Jedi
Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars cameo isn’t too tricky to spot, provided you are looking for him in the first place.
The Rogue One director turns up late into proceedings when the action turns to the snow-based setting of Crait.
He’s one of the Resistance soldiers gearing up for battle in the trenches. More specifically, he’s one of the only soldiers in the scene to not be wearing headgear as they prepare for an imminent attack from the First Order.
It’s not too difficult to work out how he landed the part given the high number of crew members who most likely worked on both The Last Jedi and Rogue One.
He does a solid job, too.
Ewan McGregor in The Force Awakens
It may not be as part of the Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off movie that some fans have asking for, but Ewan McGregor does make an appearance of sorts in what amounts to his fourth Star Wars movie.
It’s a fleeting cameo, to say the least, though, with McGregor’s return as Obi-Wan amounting to little more than a single word in The Force Awakens.
He returns during the flashback scene that comes about as a result of Rey touching Luke’s old lightsaber. In the blink of an eye, she’s transported back to a past time.
Out of the ether comes a voice, whispering the name “Rey.” McGregor later confirmed that he was the man behind that particular whisper.
Iko Uwais in The Force Awakens
Iko Uwais is a man of many talents. He’s an actor, stuntman, fight choreographer, and martial artist. He may want to add “extra” to that list too after his fine performance in The Force Awakens that was so good, most people probably failed to notice it.
Uwais is best known for his starring role in The Raid and The Raid II, but he went mainstream here as Kanjiklub lieutenant Razoo Qin-Fee.
This was all down to JJ Abrams, who was desperate to have Uwais and Raid co-stars Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman involved in proceedings, having seen them strut their stuff in the cult action movie franchise.
Their roles may only be small, but they remain memorable.
Kevin Smith in The Force Awakens
Clerks director Kevin Smith got to live the dream with a cameo in The Force Awakens. It’s not an especially big or noticeable part, per se, with JJ Abrams preferring to restrict Smith’s appearance to a single line.
In fact, we don’t even see the filmmaker on the screen. Instead, he can be heard during the attack at Maz Kanata’s castle.
Reacting to the sight of some Resistance fighters, it’s Smith who utters the words “We have incoming at 28.6! Move!”
The stormtrooper the words are attributed to, however, is definitely not Smith. He recorded his lines separately, unlike Daniel Craig, who went the whole hog in both wearing the stormtrooper garb and saying his lines.
Keira Knightley in The Phantom Menace
To say that 1999’s The Phantom Menace was hyped up upon release would be an understatement. Yet, for many, the appearance of a 14-year-old Keira Knightley went unnoticed.
This is odd when you consider that her character, Sabé, plays a important part in proceedings.
As one of Queen Amidala’s handmaidens and decoys, she has several lines of important dialogue.
She does a fine job of things, which is more than you can say for some of the other actors.
It’s little wonder that she would go on to land a starring role in The Pirates of the Caribbean. Given how poorly The Phantom Menace was received, she may be the best thing to come out of the whole thing.
Dominic West in The Phantom Menace
Dominic West spent over a decade toiling in lesser roles prior to landing the part of Jimmy McNulty in David Simon’s critically-acclaimed, The Wire.
He’s gone on to even bigger success since appearances in movies like Tomb Raider and The Affair.
During this time, he was able to land a small part in The Phantom Menace in another notable performance you probably missed.
West plays Jerus Jannick, a Naboo officer and lieutenant present during the invasion orchestrated by the Trade Federation.
His role is more important than most, with Jannick assisting Queen Padmé Amidala in the capture of Neimoidian Viceroy Nute Gunray during the movie’s big Battle of Naboo finale.
Joel Edgerton in The Attack of the Clones
Australian actor Joel Edgerton first made his name in Hollywood with a string of bit-part roles in movies like King Arthur, Ned Kelly and two of the three Star Wars prequel movies.
He plays the young version of Owen Lars, Luke Skywalker’s uncle and eventual adoptive parent. He plays a key role in proceedings during The Revenge of the Sith.
As the son of Cliegg Lars and stepbrother of Anakin Skywalker, it is he, along with wife Beru, who ends up taking custody of Luke, then only a baby, at the end of the movie.
In an otherwise uneven Star Wars entry, the handing over of the child serves as a poignant conclusion to proceedings.
Rose Byrne in The Attack Of The Clones
Natalie Portman’s Queen Amidala certainly boasted some soon-to-be memorable names in her impressive squad of handmaidens.
Not only was Keira Knightley among their ranks, but a then-unknown Australian actress by the name of Rose Byrne was also part of the impressive ensemble.
Byrne, who would first hit the big time on the hit series Damages alongside Glenn Close, played Amidala’s trusted handmaiden Dormé.
Though not an especially big role, the part did give Byrne plenty of screen time and counts as her first taste of franchise filmmaking, ahead of a future role as Dr. Moira MacTaggart in the James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender X-Men movies.
*NSYNC in The Attack of the Clones
The possible presence of the popular boyband in Attack of the Clones is the source of some contention among fans.
The story goes that George Lucas and producer Rick McCallum’s daughters were such huge fans of *NSYNC that they managed to land the group cameos in the prequel movie.
Joey Fatone along with his brother and members Chris Kirkpatrick and JC Chasez filmed a couple of scenes dressed as Jedi Knights during the Geonosis battle.
Alas, the scenes were apparently cut… or so they thought. Several eagle-eyed fans have since claimed that Fatone’s character, at the very least, features in several frames of the movie.
Lucasfilm has so far failed to deny or confirm the claims.
