Saga BTS Celebrity Cameos in Star Wars

Like it or not, it's become a tradition to feature cameos from high profile actors in minor Star Wars roles. I'm not really counting any crew members here, since that originally started out of necessity, and later just became a nice gesture to the hardworking men and women behind the scenes.

I believe the trend started with Treat Williams' appearance in the Empire Strikes Back - an appearance so small that fans still haven't pinpointed his appearance as a Rebel soldier. Some time passed, and then word got out that members of NSYNC were given roles in Attack of the Clones. The backlash was so severe that their appearance was cut completely. Things weren't that interesting until The Force Awakens, which openly invited celebrity cameos, such as Daniel Craig, Kevin Smith, and Simon Pegg. And it seems that number has just shot up with The Last Jedi. Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Barlow, Prince William, Prince Harry... it's getting kind of ridiculous.

On one hand, most of these aren't harmful to the film. On the other, the backlash to NSYNC's celebrity cameo was said to be evidence of the series "selling out." Which isn't anything compared to all the cameos they're trying to cram into the new movies. Disney seems to follow the belief that any publicity is good publicity and humors any celebrity begging to make it into a Star Wars film.

Personally, it doesn't affect me - the only one I actively despised was Simon Pegg being put in the Force Awakens after saying he "doesn't respect" certain Star Wars fans, and having harsher words for George Lucas. What a scumbag.

 

I personally really liked the idea of celeb cameos. The cameos aren't there for publicity. Daniel Craig was in the area and asked if he could be put in. Who could refuse that? Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Simon Pegg and Kevin Smith are all huge Star Wars fans, so they wanted to be in them, and that's fair enough. Simon even helped quite a bit with TFA. The Princes, Tom Hardy and Ellie Goulding's scenes all got cut. It seems all the celebs that get roles are near the filming locations.

 

I don't think I noticed any of the cameos until they were pointed out to me afterwards. We're not talking "Around the World in 80 Days" or "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World".

 

As long as I don't notice and am unaware I don't really care...

 

I don't really follow many movies, so the majority of the cameos in the ST so far, I hear about them (for example, Joseph Gordon Levitt or Tom Hardy) and I'm just like "Who?"

So with that in mind, it doesn't bother me

 

It's the same for me. I would hardly even call it a cameo when a celebrity is brought in as an extra and their face is concealed by a mask.

Yeah, I bet he played a pivotal role in helping JJ realize that even one pod racer flag at the entrance to Maz's castle would've robbed the entire scene of originality...

It's interesting, though, that Pegg chose to lend his voice to Dengar in TCW, despite the show being made under the watchful eye of the man who had apparently "killed his kid" with his latest trilogy.

 

I don't understand any anxiety surrounding familiar actors appearing in Star Wars.

 

I'm OK with cameos, as long as they're not so obvious or blatant that they pull me out of the moment as I say, "Hey, that's the guy/girl from XX!"

 

His name is Vin Diesel and it’s xXx.

 

"I don't have padawans. I have family."

 

Lucy Lawless in TFA is a (f)lawless cameo to me, because I would never have guessed that that was her. Only real fans will take notice.

 

Is she in TFA?

I never Xena!

 

That's Kate Fleetwood, @Lulu Mars .

Spoiler

Unless I'm missing a joke here.

 

Whoa, so it is!!
What do you know! I was positive that someone said Lucy Lawless was in TFA and maybe I just assumed that this was her scene...

I'm not familiar with Kate Fleetwood.

 

There is a resemblance, to be fair.

She's a great Lady to Patrick Stewart's Macbeth . Here's the whole thing.

Here's a clip.


And I believe she was in a Potter film. Harry. Not Dennis.

 

Cool! Thanks

 

Here's one I'd like to see in Episode IX.

Poe's fighter is damaged. He's coming in hot, and BB-8 can't fix it. He's headed for the hangar bay on a Resistance cruiser. Personnel are scrambling to their emergency stations. And who do we see on the flight deck?

 

"Poe is their leader"