Plenty of A-list Hollywood stars have cameoed in the Star Wars franchise over the years. While George Lucas was committed to casting fresh new talent in Star Wars’ biggest roles – a tradition continued by Disney in the Star Wars sequel trilogy – that doesn’t mean the franchise has been entirely devoid of bankable talent either.

Sir Alec Guinness and Liam Neeson come to mind, of course, but a few other major stars have joined the Star Wars galaxy just for the fun of it, too. Friends of Star Wars directors like George Lucas and Rian Johnson have had blink-and-miss-it cameo roles; some were even completely unrecognizable. While a few of the Hollywood cameos included on this list are well-known, others might surprise you.

10

Sofia Coppola

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

Before she forged her path as a renowned, Oscar-winning writer and director, Sofia Coppola had a brief acting career. She famously played Mary in her father’s film, The Godfather Part III, but a few years later, she also had a small cameo in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In George Lucas’ first Star Wars prequel, she played Queen Amidala’s handmaiden, Saché.

In a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, Coppola explained how she ended up in the film. When she heard Lucas was working on another Star Wars movie, she asked if she could visit the set, and they gave her a small part in the production instead. At the time, Coppola was writing the script for The Virgin Suicides. The two directors even share a birthday.

9

Keira Knightley

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

A Queen has more than one handmaiden. Alongside Sofia Coppola’s Saché, there was Keira Knightley’s Sabé, Queen Amidala’s loyal body double. Knightley’s close resemblance to Natalie Portman got her cast in the film, just as the character’s close resemblance to her Queen got her the decoy job. Knightley’s no stranger to fantasy films, of course. She later starred in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

While Knightley’s Sabé only appeared in live-action in The Phantom Menace, the character has a rich and even dark history within the franchise. In the Star Wars comics and novels, it is revealed that she knew Padmé and Anakin Skywalker’s secret, traveled to Tatooine to free Anakin’s mother from slavery, became part of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn, and even loyally served Darth Vader.

8

Dominic West

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

BAFTA-winning British actor Dominic West had a brief cameo in The Phantom Menace, playing one of Queen Amidala’s palace guards. In the movie, there’s a scene in which he announces Anakin Skywalker’s (Jake Lloyd) arrival at Padmé’s private quarters.

This was relatively early in West’s career; HBO’s The Wire didn’t debut until 2007. Since then, West has had critically acclaimed roles in dozens of British and Hollywood productions, including the BBC’s non-musical adaptation of Les Misérables, Downton Abbey: A New Era, The Crown, and more.

7

Rose Byrne

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

Australian actress Rose Byrne has been part of Hollywood’s elite for years, but one of her first roles in a major Hollywood production was in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Like her peers before her, Byrne played another one of Padmé Amidala’s handmaidens, Dormé, despite Amidala’s career change as a Senator in Lucas’ second prequel movie.

Interestingly, Byrne later had a role in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette before joining another major sci-fi/fantasy franchise: Fox’s second era of X-Men movies. While we’ve seen Byrne in some great dramatic roles, she’s an undeniable comedic talent. She’s fantastic in comedy movies like Bridesmaids and Spy.

6

George Lucas

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

George Lucas may have directed Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, but he also briefly appeared in it (alongside his daughter, Katie Lucas). In Revenge of the Sith‘s Opera House sequence, Lucas can be seen as the Pantoran Baron Notluwiski Papanoida just before Anakin heads into the theater to meet with Palpatine.

Later, in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, Lucas’ character returned in season 3, episode 4, “Sphere of Influence,” voiced by Corey Burton. In the story, Papanoida’s daughters are kidnapped and held for ransom. Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, is tasked with bringing them to safety with the help of Pantoran Senator Riyo Chuchi, one of Senator Amidala’s closest allies.

5

Simon Pegg

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Simon Pegg is no stranger to major action-adventure franchises. With starring roles in Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy, it was only a matter of time before he showed up in Star Wars. That moment came in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and it had been a long journey for Pegg. He’s been a major fan of Star Wars since the 1970s.

Simon Pegg is unrecognizable as Jakku junker Unkar Plutt; even his voice is disguised. He didn’t just play a minor part in the film, though. As he told Empire in the lead-up to The Force Awakens‘ release, he also acted as a consultant and a “sounding board” for director J.J. Abrams. Sometimes, dreams really do come true.

4

Daniel Craig

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Anyone can spot Daniel Craig on screen. He’s played one of the most beloved iterations of James Bond, and now he’s the world’s best detective, Benoit Blanc. You won’t find him so easily in Star Wars, though. In The Force Awakens, he’s disguised as a stormtrooper, one who succumbs to Rey’s first successful Jedi Mind Trick after Kylo Ren’s interrogation.

If you listen very, very closely, you’ll probably be able to recognize Craig’s voice underneath the stormtrooper’s modifier. He doesn’t have Benoit Blanc’s trademark semi-Southern drawl, though. The actor only developed that peculiarly entertaining accent a few years later.

3

Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Remember that kid running through the airport in the British Christmas classic Love, Actually? That was Thomas Brodie-Sangster. While many remember the actor as Liam Neeson’s son, Brodie-Sangster has had numerous acclaimed roles in high-profile projects since then, including Game of Thrones, The Maze Runner, The Queen’s Gambit, and The Artful Dodger.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster appears as a First Order officer in The Force Awakens, barking out a forceful “We have an unsanctioned departure in Bay 2.” Like Pegg, Brodie-Sangster is a lifelong Star Wars fan and jumped at the chance to join the galaxy far, far away. The actor told USA Today that he’d “always wanted to play a baddie,” and that his role in The Force Awakens “counts.”

2

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s cameo in Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi is just as hard to spot as Simon Pegg’s. In The Last Jedi, Gordon-Levitt plays Slowen Lo, an Abednedo salesman and snitch extraordinaire. When Finn and Rose arrive on Canto Bight to find the Master Code Breaker, Slowen complains to the city’s local police about them parking their ship on the beach.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role in The Last Jedi is brief and part of one of the most maligned sequences in the film. Even so, it’s no surprise Gordon-Levitt decided to join. He and Rian Johnson are close friends. Gordon-Levitt has participated in nearly all of Johnson’s films, whether in a starring role (2005’s Brick and 2012’s Looper) or a Slowen-sized cameo.

1

Justin Theroux

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The Leftovers star Justin Theroux was originally slated to have a bigger role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In the final version of Johnson’s film, Theroux can be seen as the dapper Master Codebreaker, one of Maz Kanata’s “contacts.” He’s hard to miss in his white suit jacket with the red plom bloom on his lapel, yet sadly, Finn and Rose never manage to meet him (thanks, Slowen).

Instead, they’re forced to rely on DJ (Benicio del Toro), a shady hacker they find in Canto Bight’s holding cells. In an interview with CinemaBlend, Theroux explained that his Codebreaker role diminished as Johnson’s script evolved. Nevertheless, he was happy to join the film, and he’s since worked with Johnson on the director’s Emmy-nominated mystery series, Poker Face.

Surely, as Star Wars continues to grow and evolve, more familiar Hollywood faces will join the franchise, either in major parts – Sigourney Weaver’s involvement in The Mandalorian and Grogu and Ryan Gosling’s leading role in Star Wars: Starfighter are certainly exciting prospects – or in cameo roles similar to the ones named above. Star Wars has a rich cinematic history, after all.