NSYNC, Michael Jackson and other stars who almost appeared in Star Wars movies
By Dean Mott
We know the stars of Star Wars, but there were many others who could have been embodied the iconic roles. See the list of stars who almost appeared in a galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars movies have turned actors such as Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Daisy Ridley into household names.
But a galaxy far, far away could have included many other familiar faces.
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That includes members of the pop group NSYNC, who filmed two scenes for Episode II: Attack of the Clones, including the Geonosis battle. The scenes were filmed in 2001, but didn’t make the final movie.
Joey Fatone and his brother Steven filmed with Joey’s bandmates Chris Kirkpatrick and JC Chasez, the Fatone brothers recalled to HuffPost in 2015 (Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass didn’t participate).
“They kind of paired us off, it was actually me and my brother that were kind of fighting back-to-back for the big arena scene,” Joey Fatone told HuffPost. “They basically said, ‘Pretend like you’re fighting droids.’”
Their outfits included Jedi robes and Padawan braids.
Rumors of the cameo didn’t go over too well with fans, and the scenes later went “Bye, Bye, Bye” But the thought of NSYNC in Attack of the Clones lives on online — specifically a 2002 “Saturday Night Live” skit that reimagined the group’s time on set and shows the boy band harmonizing about being a “Jedi Knight in these Jedi days” while gyrating and swinging plastic lightsabers.
It wasn’t the first time a music star hoped to appear in a Star Wars movie. The King of Pop had similar dreams.