- 18/05/2025
These actors all had enough of Star Wars.
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00:00Star Wars is pretty much a dream gig for vast swaths of actors, but that doesn't mean it's
00:05necessarily a good fit for everybody, or that actors want to keep playing around in that
00:10Tatooine sandbox forever. And so, sometimes actors who've appeared in the franchise end
00:16up drawing a line and calling it a day. They're starting to walk away into that big old binary
00:20sunset, never to return. Or at least to not return until they decided that actually this
00:25is quite a nice gig. I'm Ewan Sleaze-Bagano, this is What Cult of Star Wars, and here are
00:307 Star Wars Actors Who Quit.
00:33Number 7. Freddie Prinze Jr.
00:36Freddie Prinze Jr. provided the voice of Jedi Caden Jarrus throughout Star Wars Rebels 4 Seasons,
00:41which culminated with the character's sacrificial death, seemingly bringing his Star Wars tenure to
00:46a natural enough end when the show too concluded in 2018. However, Prinze Jr. did end up reprising
00:52the role in cameo form in both The Rise of Skywalker and in an episode of Star Wars The
00:58Bad Batch's first season, since which he's straight up confirmed that he's 100% done with
01:03the character. In an interview with Christian Harloff, he said that, quote,
01:07I was asked to return for The Bad Batch, yeah. I didn't necessarily want to. I feel like every time
01:12you hear Kanan's voice since Rebels ended, it really kind of dilutes his impact. I didn't want to do The
01:18Rise of Skywalker either. I was asked as a favor, and I feel like all my, oh, their favors are used
01:24up now. Prinze Jr. further confirmed that he would not be appearing as the character in the upcoming
01:28live-action Ahsoka series, adding, quote, I'm done with Kanan. I'm too old for that stuff.
01:33While this technically doesn't preclude Prinze Jr. from playing another Star Wars character in the
01:39future, reading between the lines, it certainly sounds like he's happy to move on to other things.
01:43Also, gotta love that energy in general. Will he love Freddie Prinze Jr.? Great dude.
01:48Number 6, John Boyega. John Boyega rose to prominence playing Finn in the Star Wars sequels,
01:55though since the release of The Rise of Skywalker, the actor has spoken candidly about his mixed
02:00experience working on the films, namely how Finn's role was reduced in importance over the course of
02:07the trilogy. But with the potential for future Star Wars films to bring Finn back into the fold,
02:12it was just a matter of time before Boyega was asked about his potential involvement,
02:16and in a serious XM interview last summer, he gave a characteristically no-nonsense response.
02:23Quote,
02:23At this point, I'm cool off it. I'm good off it. I think Finn is at a good confirmation point where
02:28you can just enjoy him in other things, the games, the animation. But I feel like The Force Awakens to
02:33The Rise of Skywalker was good for me. Boyega certainly sounds like he's genuinely done with Star Wars,
02:39which is especially interesting given that Disney is currently developing a new Star Wars movie
02:44centered around Daisy Ridley's Rey. You would think the studio would have loved to have Boyega be a
02:49part of it, but evidently that's not going to happen. Either way, it's onwards and upwards for
02:53Boyega. Really excited to see where his career goes next. Number 5, Benicio del Toro. Benicio del Toro
03:00played the small but memorable role of DJ in The Last Jedi, but it actually wasn't the first time he was
03:06set to play a character in the Star Wars universe. Del Toro was apparently not only considered to
03:11play Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, but it even won the part and was basically locked into playing
03:16the villain for several months of pre-production. However, once George Lucas reduced Maul's role
03:21during script rewrites, Del Toro opted to quit the film and for the better part of 20 years,
03:27seemingly the franchise as a whole. Given that he instead went on to appear in Steven Soderbergh's
03:31Traffic the very next year, for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, he's probably pretty okay
03:37with how things turned out. As for Del Toro's potential future in the franchise, he's expressed
03:41an interest in reprising the role of DJ, though it's also tough to consider where he'd possibly
03:46fit in in a future project. Number 4, James Earl Jones. James Earl Jones has of course provided the
03:53iconic voice of Darth Vader for almost an entire half-century. Across a bevy of Star Wars media,
03:59from movies to TV shows, and so on. But last summer, Jones confirmed that he had officially
04:05retired from voicing Vader, and that his final time personally portraying the character was in
04:092019's The Rise of Skywalker. However, what makes Jones' departure especially interesting is that he
04:16came to an agreement with Disney for his voice to be licensed out in perpetuity, with the cutting-edge
04:22AI software being used to generate new dialogue, using Jones' existing voice recordings as a reference.
04:29The tech was first used in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and let's be honest, would you have any idea
04:34it wasn't Jones voicing Vader, unless someone told you? But full disclosure everyone, I hate this.
04:40We've had loads of other Darth Vader voice actors in games before. Latching onto Jones' voice this way
04:46feels like a grim prophecy of where the studios might be taking this technology, and yeah, I'd rather
04:52Star Wars wasn't a part of it. Number 3, Dennis Lawson. Dennis Lawson played X-Wing pilot where
04:58Gentiles in the original Star Wars trilogy, though in the decades that followed, the actor largely
05:03swore off the franchise, only lending his voice to the 2001 video game Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2,
05:09Rogue Leader. In fact, leading up to the release of The Force Awakens, rumors began swirling that
05:14Lawson would finally reprise the role of Wedge in live-action form, only for him to bluntly reply
05:20that he was done with the series. Quote,
05:22I'm not going to do that. They asked me, but it just would have bored me.
05:25More recently, Lawson's nephew, Ewan McGregor, who of course plays the younger version of Obi-Wan
05:30Kenobi, suggested that his uncle isn't too fond of the entire circus of fandom surrounding the
05:35franchise. Quote,
05:36He was always really dismissive of it because he did a couple of weeks' work sitting in a cardboard
05:40spaceship, and yet he had this massive following. It sort of annoyed him. However, in an unexpected
05:46twist of fate, Lawson did indeed return for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as Wedge in The
05:51Rise of Skywalker, and has since lent his voice to the Star Wars Squadron's video game, and also an
05:56episode of the animated anthology series Star Wars Visions.
06:00Number 2. Ahmed Best
06:01Few actors, if any, have had a rougher time with Star Wars than Ahmed Best. Portrayed Jar Jar Binks in
06:09the prequel trilogy, and proceeded to be mauled by grown adults upset at a children's comic relief
06:13appearing in a kids' movie. Yes, I'm going there. I was three when The Phantom Menace came out and had
06:18a dancing Jar Jar and a cuddly Jar Jar plush. I was Jar Jar Man. The personal attacks leveled against
06:24Best over the years became so overwhelming as to send him into a deep depression, though he did
06:30nevertheless return to voice Jar Jar in several Robot Chicken episodes, the Star Wars The Clone Wars
06:35animated series, and the animated short Lego Star Wars The Empire Strikes Out. Yet in 2016,
06:42Best confirmed that he had quit Star Wars for good, stating in an interview with the YouTube
06:47channel These Are The Actors You're Looking For, that he felt he'd done enough as Jar Jar.
06:53Quote,
06:53I think I've done my damage. I'm good with where I stand in the Star Wars universe. I'd say no.
06:58I think I did what I did. I thought it was great. It was fun. But now it's time to move on.
07:03Best kept his word for a few years, though seemingly had a change of heart once Lucasfilm approached him
07:08to return the Star Wars franchise as an entirely new character. In 2020, Best hosted the game show
07:14Star Wars Jedi Temple Challenge as a new Jedi master by the name of Keller and Beck, who reappeared
07:19more recently in The Mandalorian's third season, where he was revealed to be the Jedi who saved
07:24Grogu from Order 66. All in all, a lovely conclusion to Best's difficult Star Wars journey.
07:30And number one, Terran Stamp.
07:32Terran Stamp was an undeniably brilliant get for The Phantom Menace, even if his acting
07:38talents were largely wasted on the relatively unremarkable character of Chancellor Phyllis
07:43Valorum, who was eventually kicked out of the Senate and replaced by Palpatine, played
07:46of course by Ian McDermott. In the years since the film's release, Stamp has minced no words
07:51at all about his displeasure shooting his few scenes, citing George Lucas' ostensible
07:56lack of interest in performance over the movie's cutting-edge visual effects.
08:00Stamp said in an interview with Empire that, quote,
08:02we didn't get on at all. I didn't rate him that much as a director, really. I didn't feel like he
08:07was a director of actors. He was more interested in stuff and effects. He didn't interest me,
08:13and I wouldn't think I interested him. I came all the way back from Australia to do it. I didn't want
08:17to, but my agent leaned on me, and I wanted to meet Natalie Portman because I'd seen her in Leon.
08:22And I did meet her, and she was absolutely enchanting. But on the day I'm supposed to do my scene
08:27with her, for which I'd travelled halfway around the world, I said, where's Natalie? And George
08:32says, that's Natalie, and points to a bit of paper on the wall. It was just boring.
08:37Stamp added that he also wasn't well compensated for his role in the $150 million temp hole,
08:44and when he agreed to come back for a day of reshoots in exchange for a gift, Lucas ended up
08:48giving him some Star Wars stencils. As such, Stamp elected not to reprise his role for either of the
08:54prequel movies that followed, ditching a franchise that evidently didn't have much interesting work
08:59for him anyway. And there you have it, seven actors who quit Star Wars. Are there any other actors you
09:04hope will return to the galaxy far, far away? Or do you feel like it's for the best that they parted
09:09ways? Post your thoughts down in the comments below, and please be sure to drop the video a like
09:12if you enjoyed it, and also subscribe to World Culture Star Wars so you don't miss their upload.
09:16You can also head back on over to worldculture.com for more lists and pieces like this every day.
09:20Either way, I've been Ewood, this has been World Culture Star Wars, and until next time,
09:24may the Force be with you. Bye!
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