Famous names are arguably less important than ever when it comes to selling a big budget blockbuster movie to the masses in an age where the property itself is the main draw as opposed to the people who appear on screen, but Star Wars has never been too concerned with star power even dating back to A New Hope.
It was a risk for George Lucas to cast three relative unknowns as the leads in his sci-fi adventure, but the approach was more than vindicated when the first installment in the series became the highest-grossing movie ever made at the time. Since then, the various ensembles across all three trilogies and the Anthology spinoffs haven’t relied on A-list stars in order to draw in crowds.
In terms of pre-existing fame unrelated to a galaxy far, far away when they made their Star Wars debut, the most recognizable actor or actress to have appeared in any of the eleven live-action films to date is arguably Samuel L. Jackson, although countless members of the sprawling roster from Episodes I to IX have since gone on to enjoy hugely successful careers in their own right.
However, that could all be about to change, at least if insider Daniel Richtman’s latest intel pans out. According to the tipster, Lucasfilm want to recruit some major Hollywood stars for their upcoming slate of projects, although there’s not much more information available than that. Of course, almost every other marquee franchise in the business has roped in at least a handful of household names, with Star Wars being something of an outlier in that regard, but with the sci-fi saga having a cleaner slate than it ever has before, a shakeup could certainly be on the cards.
