21 Actors You Didn't Know Were Almost Cast In Star Wars

By Simon Gallagher / June 25, 2014

18. Karen Allen Was Almost Princess Leia

Before she was ultimately given a juicy leading female role by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Allen, who had debuted in Animal House in 1978 and done very little else of note, auditioned for the role of Leia for her future employer, and lost out to Carrie Fisher. She would also go on to miss out on key roles in Gangs Of New York (in its earliest days of production), Scarface and Blue Velvet, all of which she was considered for in the wake of her Raiders performance.

17. Robert Englund Was Almost Han Solo

Star Wars could have been an awful lot different if Freddy Krueger had got his own way. Despite rumours initially suggesting that Robert Englund had auditioned for the part of Luke Skywalker, the actor quashed those suggestions in an interview with Scyfilove.

I did not audition for Luke Skywalker in Star Wars... I was actually auditioning for the role of the surfer in Apocalypse Now but they said I was too old for that, but I was dressed kind of military so they suggested I might be right for a film across the hall. I went across and it was auditions for Star Wars where they actually saw me for Han Solo, although they said I was too young!"

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Though he missed out on the role, Englund did have a hand in the final casting of the series:

At the time this happened, there was a young actor crashing on the couch in my apartment in the Hollywood Hills Mark Hamill, who would later audition for Luke and change his life. I think he had spoken to his agent about the role, but I may have even mentioned to him there was a great project and remember sharing details of that audition with him too.

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