NSYNC, Michael Jackson and other stars who almost appeared in Star Wars movies
By Dean Mott
Tupac Shakur
In addition to being a great rapper, Tupac Shakur was also an established actor — and he wanted to play a Jedi master.
Prior to his 1996 murder, Shakur auditioned to play Mace Windu in The Phantom Menace. The part would eventually go to a fellow actor in the 1992 movie Juice, Samuel L. Jackson.
The “Ambitionz As a Ridah” rapper was ambitious about appearing in the Star Wars universe.
"“He was telling me that he was supposed to read for George Lucas,” Rick Clifford, an engineer at Death Row Records, told 2PacForumChannel in 2014. “They wanted him to be a Jedi… Samuel L. got Tupac’s part. He said, ‘Ol man,’ he used to call me ol’ man, ‘keep your fingers crossed. I got three movies coming up. One of ‘em, I gotta read for George Lucas.’”"
The two movies released after Tupac’s death were Gridlock’d — with Tim Roth and Thandie Newton — and Gang Related, alongside Jim Belushi, Lela Rochon and Dennis Quaid. He also appeared in Above the Rim, Poetic Justice and Nothing but Trouble in his too-short but influential life.
Jackson, meanwhile, brought grit and energy to Mace Windu, a character that was initially slated to appear in the original Star Wars movies but was reintroduced for the trilogy.
And, who knows, Mace Windu may just end up someplace else.