- 2 days ago
These actors all had enough of Star Wars.
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00:00Star Wars is pretty much a dream gig for vast swathes 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 up drawing
00:16a line and calling it a day. They're starting to walk away into that big old binary sunset,
00:21never to return, or at least to not return until they decided that actually this is quite a nice
00:26gig. I'm Ewan Sleazebergano, this is What Cult of Star Wars, and here are seven Star Wars actors who
00:32quit. 7. Freddie Prinze Jr. Freddie Prinze Jr. provided the voice of Jedi Caden Jarrus throughout
00:39Star Wars Rebels' four seasons, which culminated with the character's sacrificial death, seemingly
00:44bringing his Star Wars tenure to a natural enough end when the show too concluded in 2018. However,
00:50Prince Jr. did end up reprising the role in cameo form in both The Rise of Skywalker and in
00:56an episode of Star Wars The Bad Batch's first season, since which he's straight up confirmed
01:01that he's 100% done with the character. In an interview with Christian Harloff, he said that,
01:07quote, I was asked to return for The Bad Batch, yeah, I didn't necessarily want to. I feel like
01:12every time you hear Caden's voice since Rebels ended, it really kind of dilutes his impact.
01:17I didn't want to do The Rise of Skywalker either. I was asked as a favour, and I feel like all my,
01:22all their favours are used up now. Prince Jr. further confirmed that he would not be appearing
01:27as the character in the upcoming live-action Ahsoka series, adding, quote, I'm done with Caden.
01:32I'm too old for that stuff. While this technically doesn't preclude Prince Jr. from playing another
01:38Star Wars character in the future, reading between the lines, it certainly sounds like he's happy to
01:42move on to other things. Also, gotta love that energy in general. Would he love Freddie Prinze Jr.? Great dude.
01:48Number 6. John Boyega
01:50John Boyega rose to prominence playing Finn in the Star Wars sequels, though since the release
01:56of The Rise of Skywalker, the actor has spoken candidly about his mixed experience working on
02:02the films, namely how Finn's role was reduced in importance over the course of the trilogy.
02:08But with the potential for future Star Wars films to bring Finn back into the fold, it was just a
02:13matter of time before Boyega was asked about his potential involvement, and in a Sirius XM interview
02:18last summer, he gave a characteristically no-nonsense response. Quote,
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
02:59Benicio Del Toro played the small but memorable role of DJ in The Last Jedi, but it actually wasn't the
03:05first time he was set to play a character in the Star Wars universe. Del Toro was apparently not
03:10only considered to play Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, but it even won the part and was basically
03:15locked into playing the villain for several months of pre-production. However, once George Lucas reduced
03:20Maul's role during script rewrites, Del Toro opted to quit the film and for the better part of 20
03:26years, seemingly 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
03:50James Earl Jones has of course provided the iconic voice of Darth Vader for almost an entire
03:56half century, across a bevy of Star Wars media from movies to TV shows and so on.
04:02But last summer, Jones confirmed that he had officially retired from voicing Vader and that
04:06his final time personally portraying the character was in 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. However,
04:13what makes Jones' departure especially interesting is that he came to an agreement with Disney for
04:18his voice to be licensed out in perpetuity, with the cutting edge AI software being used to
04:23generate 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
04:35it 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
04:52know that Star Wars wasn't a part of it.
04:543. Dennis Lawson
04:56Dennis Lawson played X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy, though in
05:01the decades that followed, the actor largely swore off the franchise, only lending his voice
05:06to the 2001 video game Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 Rogue Leader. In fact, leading up to the release
05:11of The Force Awakens, rumors began swirling that Lawson would finally reprise the role of Wedge in
05:17live-action form, only for him to bluntly reply that he was done with the series. Quote,
05:22I'm not gonna 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 Kenobi,
05:30suggested that his uncle isn't too fond of the entire circus of fandom surrounding the franchise.
05:35Quote,
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-missed cameo as Wedge in
05:51The Rise of Skywalker, and has since lent his voice to the Star Wars Squadrons video game,
05:55and also an episode of the animated anthology series Star Wars Visions.
05:592. Ahmed Best
06:01Few actors, if any, have had a rougher time with Star Wars than Ahmed Best, portrayed Jar Jar Binks
06:08in the 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 a
06:18dancing Jar Jar and a cuddly Jar Jar plush. I was Jar Jar Man. The personal attacks leveled against Best
06:24over the years became so overwhelming as to send him into a deep depression, though he did nevertheless
06:30return to voice Jar Jar in several Robot Chicken episodes, the Star Wars The Clone Wars animated
06:36series, and the animated short Lego Star Wars The Empire Strikes Out. Yet in 2016,
06:42Bass confirmed that he had quit Star Wars for good, stating in an interview with the YouTube channel
06:48These Are The Actors You're Looking For that he felt he'd done enough as Jar Jar. Quote,
06:53I think I've done my damage. I'm good with where I stand in the Star Wars universe. I'd say no. I think I did
06:59what I did. I thought it was great. It was fun. But now it's time to move on. Best kept his word for a few
07:04years, though seemingly had a change of heart once Lucasfilm approached him to return the Star Wars
07:09franchise as an entirely new character. In 2020, Best hosted the game show Star Wars Jedi Temple
07:16Challenge as a new Jedi master by the name of Keller and Beck, who reappeared more recently in The
07:20Mandalorian's third season, where he was revealed to be the Jedi who saved Grogu from Order 66.
07:26All in all, a lovely conclusion to Best's difficult Star Wars journey.
07:30And number one, Terran Stamp. Terran Stamp was an undeniably brilliant get for The Phantom Menace,
07:36even if his acting talents were largely wasted on the relatively unremarkable character of Chancellor
07:42Phyllis Valorum, who is eventually kicked out of the Senate and replaced by Palpatine, played of course
07:47by Ian McDermott. In the years since the film's release, Stamp has minced no words at all about
07:51his displeasure shooting his few scenes, citing George Lucas' ostensible lack of interest in
07:57performance over the movie's cutting-edge visual effects. Stamp said in an interview with Empire
08:02that, quote, we didn't get on at all. I didn't rate him that much as a director, really. I didn't feel
08:07like he was a director of actors. He was more interested in stuff and effects. He didn't interest me,
08:12and I wouldn't think I interested him. I came all the way back from Australia to do it. I didn't
08:17want to, but my agent leaned on me and I wanted to meet Natalie Portman because I'd seen her in
08:22Leon. And I did meet her, and she was absolutely enchanting. But on the day I'm supposed to do my
08:27scene with her, for which I travelled halfway around the world, I said, where's Natalie? And
08:31George says, that's Natalie, and points to a bit of paper on the wall. It was just boring.
08:36Stamp added that he also wasn't well compensated for his role in the $150 million temp hole. And
08:44when he agreed to come back for a day of reshoots in exchange for a gift, Lucas ended up giving him
08:48some Star Wars stencils. As such, Stamp elected not to reprise his role for either of the prequel
08:54movies that followed, ditching a franchise that evidently didn't have much interesting work for
08:59him 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 Wild Culture Star Wars so you don't miss their upload.
09:16You can also head back on over to wildculture.com for more lists and pieces like this every day.
09:20Either way, I've been Eward, this has been Wild Culture Star Wars, and until next time,
09:24may the Force be with you. Bye!
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