As more and more actors are being announced for Episode IX, here at Fantha Tracks we decided that we would take a look at non Star Wars films with our favourite Star Wars actors in them. Do you agree with our choices? If we haven’t mentioned yours, make a comment below.
Paul McQue
When posed with this question my initial thought was Raiders of the Lost Ark, but that answer seemed too obvious. Instead I’ve opted for the fairly recent sci-fi film starring Rogue One’s Forest Whitaker, Arrival.
Forest Whitaker plays a U.S. Army officer who recruits linguist Amy Adams and physicist Jeremy Reiner to try and communicate with and figure out why twelve alien spacecraft ‘shells’ have arrived on Earth.
Arrival landed in cinemas in November 2016, at a time when many people on Earth wanted aliens to take them away, and went on to be nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and won the Oscar for Best Sound Editing. I was visiting a friend in Chicago when the Oscars aired in 2017 (La La Land, oops!, we meant Moonlight) and this was my costume for the Oscars party she hosted.So if, like me, you sometimes despair at mankind and believe we need to communicate better in order to survive, watch Arrival for a movie that reinvigorates a belief that love trumps hate.
Clair Henry
Choices choices! Do I go Trainspotting with Ewan McGregor? Goodbye Christopher Robin with Domhnal Gleeson? But when it boils down to it there really is only one choice…
When Harry Met SallyÂ
When Harry met Sally was released in 1989, Carrie Fisher played Marie, Meg Ryan’s character best friend.
This film was a complete change having seen Carrie play Princess Leia however her wit, acerbic sense of humour came through.
It’s a film that if I ever need a pick me up this is my go to film!
Mark Newbold
My heart wants to go for Raiders of the Lost Ark, as it’s my fave non-Star Wars film, but given the Indy series are basically made by the same folks as the Star Wars series then I’m going to give that a pass and go for something as far away from the GFFA as I can get. It could have been Shaun of the Dead with The Force Awakens Simon Pegg and The Phantom Menace‘s Peter Serafinowicz but instead we’re heading to 1980 Chicago, two ex-cons and a mission from God. Yep, my choice is….
The Blues Brothers
For me, this film means so much. Not only does it sit right behind Raiders as my fave film apart from the Star Wars series, it’s one of the very first films I hired from our local video rental store when I was a kid and one of the first times I heard the dreaded ‘F’ word (which kids back in the day will remember was a BIG deal).
There’s a sweet spot in film history between Jaws in 1975 and Back to the Future in 1985 that – to me – highlights the genius of Lucas and Spielberg and innovation in special effects and bred an swathe of genius films, laying down a template for everything that followed. While The Blues Brothers came from the Saturday Night Live crowd – also launched in 1975 – there is plenty of connective tissue between the two. Belushi and Ackroyd from Spielberg’s 1979 film 1941, the presence of Spielberg himself at the end of the film, Frank Oz as the prison administrator at the top of the film and of course Carrie Fisher as Jake’s jilted ex.
It’s genius from top to bottom, packed with amazing music, one of the biggest car chases in history and more. It may have crashed at the box office, but The Blues Brothers has cemented itself into popular culture, much like it’s intergalactic big cousin had done 3 years before.
Greig Robertson
So many fantastic films to choose from with cast from all the saga films and the stand alone Star Wars stories, but my choice is one of my all time favourite films which I watch frequently and the soundtrack plays in my house a lot. Vegas baby, VEGAS!
Swingers
Swingers released in 1996 was written by and stars Jon Favreau, the Executive Producer of the forthcoming live action Star Wars TV show and the voice of the awesome Rio Durant in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Pre Vizsla in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. “I don’t know, you’ve never been to a Mynock roast on Adrennia? It’s nuts!”
The writing in Swingers is first-class and has so many quotable lines which I use in my day-to-day life. I even named my old Band Management and Promotions company after a quote from the film, “Place is Dead Anyway!”
The cast are all great, the soundtrack is beautifully put together and it’s my go to if I’m having a bad day. I really can’t recommend this film enough. If you’ve not seen it, go grab a copy. HOT DANG!
Patty Hammond
There are many good films starring Star Wars characters out these, but one of my favorites is Krull with a younger Liam Neeson as a bandit who becomes as hero.
On the planet of Krull, an evil creature called the Beast decimates the world’s army and kidnaps the lovely Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony), who is destined to become queen.
Her brave beau, Prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall), leads a motley band of warriors, including Ergo (David Battley) and Kegan (Liam Neeson), to rescue his beloved.
However, before he can face the Beast, Colwyn must locate a mystical weapon known as the Glaive, which he can use to slay the hideous villain.
Krull, released in 1983, is another of the films that came out after Star Wars that I would consider a fantasy with sci-fi elements. Liam played a bandit named Kegan that was recruited by Prince Colwyn to help rescue his princess Lyssa and defeat the evil creature known as the Beast, who came from off-world to conquer theirs.
If you have not checked out this fantastic film, it is available to buy or rent via Amazon.
Richard Hutchinson
This is an easy one for me as although many film series like Indiana Jones and Harry Potter are thoroughly enjoyable I’m always going to say they pale in comparison to the mythology that JRR Tolkien created. Therefore my choice is The Return of the King.
I would say that as a literary work Middle-Earth is a far stronger and a more important franchise to me than even Star Wars. The characters, the depth, the journeys taken is truly staggering when you delve into the appendices and volumes of annals developed as annexes to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Christopher Lee is one of those actors who commands presence. Alongside Peter Cushing and Vincent Price they defined a whole Hammer House genre of British horror movies which I feasted on as a child. His performance as Saruman is good enough to challenge that as Gandalf in every scene he is in. When you watch a movie with Christopher Lee you don’t see the actor you see the character. Name one bad acting performance in any of The Lord of the Rings movies? A sign of a truly great film.
Paul Naylor
Following on from his successful portrayal of Mark Renton in Trainspotting, and prior to becoming the young Obi Wan Kenobi, Ewan McGregor teamed up with Danny Boyle for the rom-com A Life Less Ordinary. Starring alongside Cameron Diaz, this quirky and enjoyable 
fable is as much a time capsule of the Britpop era with its beautiful Claymation ending and fabulous use of Oasis track Round Our Way. The chemistry between the two leads is palpable – and why not? I challenge any hot blooded male not to have a fondness for Miss Diaz. For those of you who have not seen it, I won’t spoil the story. It is definitely worth checking out.
Other Ewan McGregor films of note include the sublime Big Fish and Shallow Grave. I could equally have gone gooey-eyed over Willow and its diminutive star Warwick Davis.
But perhaps we need to look at the sequel trilogy actors for some inspiration too. And why have one Star Wars actor in your indie film when you can accommodate two? Inside Llewyn Davis stars a sofa-surfing, down on his luck, Oscar Isaac in the eponymous role. Llewyn is a talented folk musician on the cusp of making it big in Greenwich in the 1960s, but never quite getting the break. Arguably one of the films’ standout moments is during a recording session for a song called Please Mr Kennedy, with Oscar singing and playing guitar along with, Justin Timberlake and A
dam Driver. It’s a great little tune – and a light hearted pause in a fairly bleak road trip. Hearing Driver’s weird interjections of animalistic noises and spouting of the word space is a million miles away from his role as Kylo Ren. And where else would you see the galaxy’s supreme leader shake hands with the Resistance’s top pilot? Seek it out now. Another must see for our older readers.
Carl Bayliss
Having been expressly told by the content police that I couldn’t pick the excellent Fanboys as my choice, as technically it is a Star Wars related film, I had to go back to the drawing board to look at films featuring Star Wars actors that none of my colleagues had already picked. The Blues Brothers was right up there, as was Indiana Jones (or a wealth of Harrison Ford films which I have enjoyed through the years). Could I go controversial and pick the excellent Looper which featured Joseph Gordon Levitt (Slowen-Lo in The Last Jedi) and was of course written and directed by Rian Johnson? Nope.
So my choice came down to an all-time classic, and one which had many links to the Star Wars Universe (and the two franchises are still heavily linked to this day). Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you….
The Muppet Movie.
Back in 1979 not many TV shows made it to the big screen, and The Muppet Show which was a massive hit as a family entertainment/variety show presented its own unique challenges to make the transition. The relative safety of the Muppet theatre was abandoned to take the intrepid band on a road trip across America for Kermit to try to find fame in Hollywood after a meeting with an agent in his Florida swamp home (where the excellent song ‘Rainbow Connection’ is featured).
A musical fun-packed journey, it’s also packed with stellar cameos from the cream of the entertainment world of the time, people like Dom Deluise, James Coburn, Telly Savalas, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks and Orson Welles, but of course the main link to the galaxy far, far away is the one and only Frank Oz. The man behind Yoda was responsible for the characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Marvin Suggs (as he was for the TV show too) and I can recall around the release of The Empire Strikes Back where a pre-internet fandom was getting worked up at a ‘muppet’ in Star Wars. Thankfully trolls of the day had to write to magazines in order to air their grievances so the ‘outrage’ was short-lived and Yoda became the much loved, mischievous sage we know him as to this day. I re-watched this film only a few weeks ago and it still made me laugh, cry and sing along. Sure it’s no 4K crisp, clean picture but it is an elegant film, from a more civilized age….