16 Surprising Actors Who Auditioned for the “Star Wars” Franchise
16 Surprising Actors Who Auditioned for the “Star Wars” Franchise
Christopher Rudolph, Emily KrauserTue, June 30, 2026 at 3:55 PM UTC
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From left: Kurt Russell attends Paramount+'s 'The Madison' premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on March 9, 2026; Jodie Foster attends the CHANEL Tribeca Festival Women's Lunechon to celebrate the Through Her Lens Program at the Greenwich Hotel in N.Y.C. on June 5, 2026; Michael B. Jordan attends the premiere of Netflix's 'Swapped' at the Netflix Tudum Theater in Los Angeles on April 26, 2026Credit: Getty(3)
In a galaxy far, far away, the troublemaking trio of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo could've looked a lot different.
Though Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford ultimately brought the respective characters to life when the first film in the original Star Wars trilogy hit theaters on May 25, 1977, other big names auditioned for those roles, too.
Kurt Russell was among the actors up for not just one but two leading roles to transport audiences to Tatooine, and Sylvester Stallone and the late Burt Reynolds also made a run at the character that would become Ford's.
For the more recent films in the sci-fi franchise, names like Michael B. Jordan and Tom Holland were up for parts.
So, who else auditioned for the various installments in George Lucas' intergalactic epic? Here are the stars who almost hit hyperspace in the Star Wars film franchise.
01 of 16
Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell poses for a portrait in L.A., circa 1979Credit: Donaldson Collection/Getty
Russell nearly joined the Rebel Alliance as Luke Skywalker or Han Solo, as he was being considered for both roles.
In a December 2015 interview with The Daily Beast, Russell recalled having to choose between starring in Star Wars or a new TV Western, The Quest.
"I was in there on Star Wars and remember asking [Star Wars creator] George [Lucas] one day, 'Do you think you're going to use me or not?' And he said, 'I don't know which part I prefer you in. I don't know if I like you as Han and this guy as Skywalker, or this guy as Han and you as Skywalker. I don't know.' "
After Lucas said he couldn't give Russell an answer, the Overboard actor said, "'All right, I'm going to go take this Western, and there will be one less guy to think about.' I don't know if he would've hired me."
02 of 16
Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster attends the 'Vie Privée (A Private Life)' red carpet during the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 20, 2025Credit: Lyvans Boolaky/Getty
It's hard to imagine Leia being brought to life by anyone else besides the late Fisher, who died at 60 after suffering a heart attack in December 2016.
However, the Princess of Alderaan was almost played by Jodie Foster.
"They were going for a younger Princess Leia, but I had a conflict," the Nyad star confirmed during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonin January 2024. "I was doing a Disney movie, and I just didn't want to pull out because I was already under contract. So, I didn't do it, and you know, they did an amazing job."
Foster jokingly added, referring to Leia's now iconic hairstyle, "I don't know how good I would have been. I might have had different hair, you know. I might have gone with a pineapple."
03 of 16
Robert Englund
Robert Englund attends a photocall during the Sitges Film Festival in Spain on Oct. 8, 2022Credit: Borja B. Hojas/Getty
Robert Englund has been literal nightmare fuel since he first played Freddy Krueger in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street — but the horror actor was close to wielding a lightsaber instead of Freddy's blade gloves.
Englund originally auditioned for Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 war epic Apocalypse Now.
He didn't get the part, but a casting director suggested him for a "space movie that they were casting across the hall."
Recalling seeing the name "Luke Skywalker" on the audition pages, Englund told PEOPLE in June 2023 that he remembered thinking, "What a name. I'd never heard the name before, I didn't know what it meant, just the coolest name in the world, Luke Skywalker."
As for the actual audition, the actor revealed, "All they did was take a Polaroid of me."
Englund didn't get the part, but he knew someone who might be a better fit: his friend Hamill.
"I'm a character actor, so I never thought of it for me, but when I went back to my apartment, there was Mark with a Heineken in his fist watching Bob Newhart," he recalled. "I told him about it, and he got on the phone and called his agent."
The rest is Hollywood history.
04 of 16
Saoirse Ronan
Saoirse Ronan attends the Louis Vuitton Womenswear Fall/Winter 2025-2026 show during Paris Fashion Week on March 10, 2025Credit: Marc Piasecki/WireImage
Lady Bird almost had a lightsaber, as Saoirse Ronan auditioned for 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
During an interview on Empire's podcast in October 2013, the Irish actress told the magazine that she had auditioned for Episode VII, which at that point hadn't begun filming, saying, "Nobody has a clue what it's about, and nobody's read the script."
"So I've gone in and read for it, but I have to say, I think it's the only time I've ever thought, 'You know what? Even if I don't get it, I had so much fun auditioning, pretending to take out a lightsaber — out of a bag, kind of inspect it and not know what it is," Ronan said. "That was great. A lightsaber! Star Wars!"
The Little Women star was far from the only in-demand actress who angled for a part, as she said, "Everyone has auditioned for it. So many people I know have gone in for the part I've gone in for."
Ronan later told The Playlist (via The Guardian) that she regretted talking about the process and thinks it might be why she lost out on the role, assumed to be Rey, ultimately played by Daisy Ridley.
"I don't have Star Wars. I don't have the role," she said, adding, "I just shouldn't have said anything. I just auditioned for it, like everyone else did."
05 of 16
Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone is seen out and about in the U.S., circa 1977Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Stallone looked back on his awkward audition for Han Solo during an appearance on The Tonight Show in August 2014.
He had just finished filming Rockyandwent in to read for the role; however, he knew pretty quickly he wasn't right for the part.
"So, I go in there, and I see George Lucas and the producer, and I can tell instantly — you know when no one likes you," the actor said.
The audition was so uncomfortable that he bowed out.
"I said, 'Let me just make it easy for you. I would look like crap in spandex, leotards and a ray gun,' " Stallone recalled telling Lucas and the producers. "Guys from space don't have this kind of face. I get it. It's okay."
06 of 16
Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds attends the taping of 'The Merv Griffin Show' at TAV Studios in L.A. on March 15, 1978Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Also considered for the space scoundrel Han Solo? Reynolds, but the Deliverance star turned down the offer.
"I just didn't want to play that kind of role at the time," the late actor, who died at 82 in September 2018, told Business Insiderin March 2016. "Now I regret it. I wish I would have done it."
07 of 16
Al Pacino
Al Pacino attends a preview party for 'Golda' on Nov. 4, 1977Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Al Pacino was considered for Han Solo as well.
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"After The Godfather, they would have let me play anything. They offered me the role of Han Solo in Star Wars," he wrote in his 2024 memoir Sonny Boy. "So, there I am, reading Star Wars."
"I gave it to Charlie," he continued, referring to his friend, fellow actor Charlie Laughton. "I said, 'Charlie, I can't make anything out of this.' He calls me back. 'Neither can I.' So I didn't do it."
08 of 16
Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne attends the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 5, 2025Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage
Eddie Redmayne searched for Fantastic Beasts and took the stage in Cabaret — but he could have donned the mask of Kylo Ren.
"With films that top secret, they don't give you the actual lines," he told Uproxx in November 2016, per Variety, recalling his audition for the Force Awakens villain. "So they give you a scene from Pride and Prejudice, but then they tell you you're auditioning for the baddie. If you're me, you then put some ridiculous voice on."
The Danish Girl actor explained how he tried "different versions" of imitating Darth Vader's breathing, but ultimately didn't land the role of Han and Leia's dark-sided son.
09 of 16
Tom Holland
Tom Holland attends the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations: 'The Crowded Room' at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Screening Room in L.A. on Nov. 29, 2023Credit: Araya Doheny/Getty
Can you imagine Holland in a Stormtrooper helmet instead of a webbed mask?
During an appearance on Hot Ones in December 2021, the Spider-Man star revealed how he fumbled his audition for the Star Wars franchise — presumably for Finn in The Force Awakens — because he kept laughing while his scene partner played a droid.
"I just remember thinking, 'There's no way this lady's going to read the robot's lines opposite me,' just because that would be ridiculous," he said. "I don't remember what my line was, but it was, 'Let's get back to the falcon!' And then this lady, bless her, would sit there with full commitment, and she just was like, 'beep-beep-boop-boop...' "
Holland added, "I just got the giggles, because you know when you realize you've got something so wrong?' I just couldn't stop laughing."
10 of 16
Ryan Phillippe
Ryan Phillippe attends a special screening of Prime Video's 'Motorheads' at the Academy's Ted Mann Theater in L.A. on May 13, 2025Credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty
In May 2025, Ryan Phillippetold Variety how he came close to playing adult Anakin in 2002's Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.
The Cruel Intention actor's seven-year age difference with Natalie Portman, who portrayed Padmé Amidala, took him out of the running.
The part ultimately went to Hayden Christensen.
"Being a kid born in the '70s, I was like, 'What a dream that would've been,' " he said. "But I think things happen for a reason, and it's easy to make peace with that. Part of what we have to develop as actors is that thick skin that comes along with rejection or maybe things not going the way you wanted in a particular project or potential job."
11 of 16
Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Fiennes attends the Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on April 14, 2024Credit: Jeff Spicer/Getty
Joseph Fiennes could have followed Shakespeare in Love with The Phantom Menace. Ewan McGregor ultimately wore the robe of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but Fiennes also auditioned for the role.
In May 2017, the Handmaid's Tale actor recalled reading for the part in front of Lucas and casting director Robin Gurland.
At the audition, he met someone's young daughter, "a lovely, delightful child."
"Must've been around age 5 — and he introduced me, 'This is Joe, and he's quite possibly Obi-Wan Kenobi," Fiennes told TheWrap. "His daughter turned around and said, 'I don't like this guy. He's weird. I don't like him. And that's how my audition went."
12 of 16
Michael B. Jordan
Michael B. Jordan attends the 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' global premiere in Leicester Square in London on May 15, 2025Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage
Jordan's audition for The Force Awakens didn't go well. In fact, he said during an interview on the Just for Variety podcast in May 2021 that it was "probably my worst" to date.
"I think it was I couldn't wrap my brain around some of the sides because you know when you're reading for these high-level projects, there's never really any specificity in the sides," the Sinners star said. "Everything's like super vague. Everything's a secret, so it's just like, reading it through, I just couldn't connect it. I definitely bombed that one for sure."
13 of 16
Brie Larson
Brie Larson attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in L.A. on Sept. 15, 2024Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty
Brie Larson had the Death Star in her sights when she auditioned for a role in the Star Wars prequel Rogue One.
In July 2020, the Captain Marvel actor was a guest on Rogue One co-writer Gary Whitta's Animal Crossing talk show Animal Talking.
During their conversation, Whitta brought up working on the Star Wars prequel, to which Larson responded, "I auditioned for that! I didn't get it."
14 of 16
Topher Grace
Topher Grace attends the D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center in California in September 2022Credit: The Walt Disney Company via Getty
Topher Grace was also considered for adult Anakin in Attack of the Clones.
"At the time, someone had seen me in a school play, and I'd only been cast on That '70s Show, and I thought, 'Oh my god, this is obviously meant to be,' " he told Deadline in June 2021.
Grace continued, "I was there basically because my haircut looked like [Phantom Menace actor] Jake Lloyd's, I think. And I'd still love to be in a Star Wars movie someday, but I can't imagine I'm the right guy for them. I guess I'll have to make do with riding the ride at Disneyland."
15 of 16
Cindy Williams
Cindy Williams attends the Hollywood Christmas Parade in L.A. on Dec. 6, 1980Credit: Ron Eisenberg/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Cindy Williams was already a sitcom star on Laverne & Shirley when she read for the role of Princess Leia, which Fisher won.
During an interview with the Television Academy Foundation in August 2013, Williams said she knew she "wasn't going to get" the part because the characters were meant to be teenagers, she recalled, and she was 26 when she auditioned, as seen on YouTube.
"I knew it was going to be someone younger than me," Williams said. "I think Carrie was just 18 or something when she got it. But you could never think of anyone else being Princess Leia. I mean, you just couldn't."
The Happy Daysactress couldn't quite grasp the script's sci-fi-filled dialogue, which she described as "impossible to say."
Williams, who died at 75 in January 2023, had previously worked with Lucas on his 1973 movie American Graffiti.
16 of 16
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken as Ben Wiley on 'Kojak' in 1977Credit: CBS/Getty
He played a mob boss in 1993's True Romance, but could Christopher Walken also have portrayed a certain smuggler in Star Wars?
The Dune: Part Two star recalled auditioning for Han Solo and screen testing with Foster, who had been up for Leia.
"I'm not sure we did a scene. Maybe we just sat in front of, in those days, those old videotape cameras," Walken told Vanity Fairin March 2024. "We might have just sat there and did the name, rank and serial number type of thing. I would say that, yes, I did audition for Star Wars, but so did about 500 other actors. It was lots of people doing that."
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