Other cameos, however, are more obscure. They’re sometimes buried underneath colorful makeup or villainous helmets and masks, so much so that even hardcore Star Wars fans may miss them. From Oscar winners to pop stars and even royalty, these appearances are wild, wacky, and perfectly Star Wars.
Dominic Monaghan – Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
Monaghan has a glorified cameo in the last film of the Skywalker Saga, The Rise of Skywalker. Best known for Lost and The Lord of the Rings, Monaghan plays Beaumont Kin, a Resistance officer whose expertise lies in both combat and galactic history.
Monaghan may be considered a little easy to miss in the film. He appears in a few scenes and has a line here and there, but that’s it. He also appears almost exclusively at the Resistance base during meetings where there are tens of other characters gathered closely around.
This cameo came about because of Monaghan’s past work with JJ Abrams, who directed the pilot episode of Lost. He doesn’t add too much to the film overall, but it’s a fun (and obscure) appearance nonetheless.
Keira Knightley – Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Before she became a household name in Pirates of the Caribbean, Keira Knightley first appeared in the Star Wars franchise. She played Sabé, one of Padmé Amidala’s loyal handmaids throughout the first film of the prequel trilogy.
Her cameo is both obscure and odd for many reasons. The plot of Episode I features Padmé fearing for her life, with actress Natalie Portman playing the Queen of Naboo as well as a handmaiden. When she’s playing the latter, then Knightley steps in to portray the Queen, which makes things a little confusing at times.
To this day, many viewers struggle to tell them apart. Still, Knightley’s presence in The Phantom Menace becomes more impressive when looking back, given how big of an actor she became just a few short years after.
Sofia Coppola – Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Another cameo from The Phantom Menace is Sofia Coppola, daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola (and good friend of George Lucas) and an eventual director herself. Coppola also plays a handmaiden, albeit one that exists more in the background than Knightley’s did.
This cameo is on the obscure end of things for many reasons. For one, despite having a close relationship with Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola doesn’t have a direct connection with Star Wars. At the same time, Sofia Coppola was still very much making a name for herself in the industry, so her cameo can be marked as unusual.
Bill Hader & Ben Schwartz – Sequel Trilogy
Unlike some of the other names on this list, Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz don’t lend their faces in their Star Wars cameos (which may actually make their appearances even more obscure). The duo combined to help Lucasfilm develop the vocals for BB-8 in the sequel trilogy.
BB-8 doesn’t speak in human language, and instead makes a series of beeps and boops, akin to R2-D2, for example. Hader and Schwartz reportedly recorded dialogue which was then manipulated to be turned into these droid sounds.
It’s an unusual cameo on many levels, as most fans wouldn’t expect BB-8’s sounds to be developed from human speech, and certainly not from two famous comedians like Hader and Schwartz.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a longstanding friendship with director Rian Johnson, who helmed Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. Gordon-Levitt has appeared in every one of Johnson’s films, so his cameo isn’t exactly unexpected (and not the only time he has voiced a character in Star Wars).
It is, however, a little obscure in its execution. He voices a character named Slowen-Lo, a resident of the casino planet Canto Bight. Slowen-Lo is the one who reports Finn and Rose to the First Order for landing their ship in an unauthorized zone and leaving it there.
The true obscurity comes in that Gordon-Levitt is putting on a very heavy accent, making his voice so distorted that the viewer likely wouldn’t even know it was him until the credits roll. Unless you stick around for that, there’s no obvious hint that a major Hollywood star is present during this brief scene.
Daniel Craig – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
James Bond himself played a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and recently reflected on his brief cameo, too. Given that Craig is underneath the First Order armor, it’s hard to call this a blink-and-you ’ll-miss-it cameo as his face isn’t actually shown. The unusual nature here comes from the timing of this cameo within Craig’s career.
In 2015, Craig was at the height of his time as James Bond, and yet goes on to appear as a stormtrooper in the same year as a Bond film was coming out. The actor also had no prior connection to Star Wars, making this cameo all the more mind-boggling (yet still cool).
George Lucas – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith
The creator himself, George Lucas, couldn’t resist making a cameo in what was his final Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith. The obscure nature of this cameo again doesn’t come from who it is, and more so, the execution.
Lucas plays Baron Papanoida, a blue-skinned alien visiting an opera show on Coruscant. He visually pops on screen, even as he’s never in focus (or anywhere close to the camera). It’s as if Lucas knew that eagle-eyed fans would spot him from a distance and focus on his character, making this cameo all the more absurd and classic Star Wars.
Prince William & Prince Harry – Star Wars: The Last Jedi
This is one of the strangest cameos in Star Wars history. British Royal Family members Prince William and Prince Harry reportedly played stormtroopers during a scene involving Finn and Rose in The Last Jedi, although their cameo was reportedly mostly removed from the final cut of the film.
Their cameo may not be easy to spot, but getting two members of the Royal Family to join a galaxy far, far away is one of the biggest pulls in the franchise’s history.
Tom Hardy – Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Another unexpected actor to play a stormtrooper in The Last Jedi is Tom Hardy. Unlike Prince William and Prince Harry, Hardy’s scene is available to watch, albeit in the deleted scenes section. Hardy recognizes John Boyega’s Finn, commenting on how he got a promotion since the last time they saw each other.
It’s a brief exchange, but one that is, again, very out there. Still, it works, as the moment serves as a full callback to the person Finn used to be, even if only in a deleted scene.
NSYNC – Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones
By far the oddest, most unusual cameo in Star Wars belongs to none other than four members of the group NSYNC. Joey Fatone, alongside his brother Steven, JC Chasez, and Chris Kirkpatrick, filmed scenes as Jedi for the Battle of Geonosis.
However, Joey Fatone later confirmed that their scenes were cut, likely due to expected fan backlash over their cameo appearances in the film. This happening at the height of the group’s fame is widely unexpected and the gold standard for bizarre, perfectly concealed Star Wars cameos.