15 Strangest Movie Casting Rumours That Thankfully Never Happened

2. Michael Jackson As Jar Jar Binks

There are two types of Star Wars fans: those who hate Jar Jar Binks, and those who really hate Jar Jar Binks. Of all of George Lucas' bad ideas - and there have been a lot - the goofy, comic relief Gungan who made his debut in The Phantom Menance stands out as the worst. Like about 85% of the prequels, Jar Jar was CGI, his voice and motion capture supplied by the relatively unknown voice actor Ahmed Best. But there was a much bigger name in the frame for the role before Best got it - the King of Pop desperately wanted the worst part in this big money flop. Jackson had always had an interest in acting but his cinematic forays were limited to The Wiz, Moonwalker, and a cameo in Men In Black II. He was well known for long-form music videos, most famously Thriller, but despite limited acting experience, he was eager to land a role in the Star Wars prequels. Jackson lobbied hard to get the role as Jar Jar, but according to Lucas, Jackson "wanted to do it in make-up and prosthetics like Thriller". Clearly Jackson's bid to make the role at least quasi-realistic didn't gel with Lucas' desire to make the prequels look as fake as possible by draping CGI over everything, so he chose Best instead. In fairness, though, you can understand his choice. Jackson, even in prosthetics, would have been instantly recognisable, and the audience would have found a moonwalking Jar Jar even more distracting than the one we actually got! In the long run, Lucas probably did Jackson a favour, as well as the rest of us. The King of Pop had enough to deal with in his later years and probably didn't want to add "being despised by every Star Wars fan" to his list of troubles.