5 Star Wars Actors That Joined a Different Sci-fi Franchise, And Who Got An Even Better Role

The original Star Wars made sci-fi icons of its cast. Mark Hamill will forever be Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher was Princess Leia, and while Harrison Ford also got to be Indiana Jones, he never got a better science fiction character than Han Solo (sorry, Rick Deckard, but you know it’s true). By the time the prequels and sequels came along, things were a bit different. Star Wars was no longer a surprise smash but a cultural institution; one that could command the biggest names and put them in even the most minor of parts (see: Terence Stamp as Chancellor Valorum).

These days, someone who steals the show or even a scene in Star Wars gets more chances to do big things. In some cases, they’ll join another sci-fi franchise in an even better role…occasionally in a similarly small but mighty part, yet often in key leads too, to the point where we might wonder, “Why don’t the characters in this movie ever notice their friend looks like a Star Wars character?” Here are five who graduated to superior sci-fi roles. That’s not to judge the new franchise as necessarily inherently better — just their particular role in it.

5) Samuel L. Jackson – Avengers

Samuel L. Jackson is something of a franchise unto himself. While he can be a highly versatile performer, he’s often in demand in action movies as the guy who wears all black, yells and says “Motherf***er” — which was famously almost the entire selling point of Snakes on a Plane. He publicly campaigned to be in the Star Wars prequels, and got his wish. Playing Jedi Master Mace Windu, he got his likeness on the first-ever prequel trilogy action figure, got to cut the head off of Jango Fett, and ultimately received an unforgettable death sequence at the hands of Palpatine and Anakin. Fans still want him to come back for a streaming series.

Yet Mace Windu’s a stiff compared to Nick Fury, who bosses around the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Appearing in the first MCU credits tease, he’s the one who made it clear that a build from Iron Man to Avengers was definitely happening. A steady supporting character in Phase 1, he ultimately got to take a lead role in Captain Marvel, and the Secret Invasion TV series, as well as being the primary hero to team up with Spider-Man in Far From Home. (He turned out to be an impostor Fury there, but it was still Jackson playing him.)

4) Natalie Portman – Thor

As Queen/Senator Amidala, Natalie Portman basically grew up onscreen in the Star Wars trilogy, due to the planet Naboo’s bizarre democracy that elects underage girls to be queen, while sending an elderly man they clearly never vetted to be Senator at the galactic capital. Playing a dual identity in The Phantom Menace, she was believably stiff as the Kabuki-faced queen and more relaxed feigning the role of her handmaiden. In Attack of the Clones, she was alluring as the kind of strong and beautiful young woman an adolescent Anakin would go wild for; her death of a broken heart in Revenge of the Sith is a touch more controversial among fans.

Portman got much more to do as an adult love interest for Thor than a bride for the future Darth Vader. Dr. Jane Foster got to be smart before she became smitten. Though she sat out the third film, Ragnarok, the fourth, Love and Thunder, not only allowed her to play out a breakup with Thor, but also let her finally become Thor, as she packed on muscular pounds to don the helmet and hammer. It literally kills her character in the end, but allows her a far more interesting arc overall than the typical superhero girlfriend.

3) Oscar Isaac – Dune

Oscar Isaac is a genuinely great actor with a wild and diverse filmography, but Poe Dameron is not the greatest Star Wars character. He starts off as a heroic pilot who helps to free Finn, but The Last Jedi turns his heroism on his head and makes his judgment look completely suspect. By The Rise of Skywalker, he gets some of the most memorable lines, but not necessarily for the right reasons, like “They fly now” and “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”

He promptly found a more critically acclaimed sci-fi trilogy to join, in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Though his Duke Leto Atreides dies in the first film, it’s a memorable death, effectively pulling a suicide bombing to try to take out everyone at Baron Harkonnen’s table. He’s a good man and father to the future Messiah figure — probably too noble for the corrupt politics the drug-producing planet requires. Isaac stepped into a role previously played by both William Hurt and Jurgen Prochnow, and made it his own. Somehow, as a franchise, Dune returned.

2) Andy Serkis – The Batman

Andy Serkis wasn’t bad as the sequel trilogy’s initial arch-villain Supreme Leader Snoke. Giant and scary-looking, he exuded power and confidence, and the actor appeared to be keeping some secrets from us to be revealed later. Then The Last Jedi abruptly offed him, and The Rise of Skywalker revealed he was just a failed Palpatine creation. Snoke was minimized in order to give Adam Driver more of the spotlight, but it made everything Serkis put into the performance almost irrelevant. We still don’t really even know why Palpatine needed this giant puppet figure instead of just showing up again to his loyal fascists, but as Darth Sidious, he has always favored deception, even when it’s not entirely necessary.

In The Batman, however, Serkis not only stepped into the classic role of Alfred Pennyworth, but arguably the most important version of Alfred — one who still has to be a father figure and guide to a Bruce Wayne who hasn’t really figured out his identity outside of the Batsuit yet.. Aside from Sean Pertwee on TV’s Gotham, whom Serkis resembles the most, this is Alfred-as-tough-dad, rather than the grandfatherly Michael Gough of the Burton-Schumacher films, or even the long-retired SAS man Michael Caine, who can’t really make Christian Bale’s Bruce do anything. It’s also a rare franchise role for Serkis that doesn’t involve motion capture or special prosthetics; he can just act, and indeed, the man is good at it.

1) John Ratzenberger – The Incredibles

John Ratzenberger didn’t initially make the biggest impression as Major Bren Derlin in The Empire Strikes Back. Indeed, it took the age of the Internet to make it common knowledge among fandom that Cliff Clavin from Cheers was a Rebel officer at Hoth’s Echo Base. Years later, thanks to his role as Hamm in Toy Story, a new generation of fans got to know him for his voice, which can be distinctively heard in almost every Pixar movie. Pixar’s biggest science-fiction movie franchise is The Incredibles, soon to get a third installment, and while Ratzenberger’s role in it is smaller, screen-time wise, than Bren Derlin’s, it is far more attention-getting.

“Behold, the Underminer! I’m always beneath you, but nothing is beneath me! I hereby declare war on peace and happiness! Soon, all will tremble before me!” So proclaims Ratzenberger’s super-villain at the end of the first Incredibles movie, now that the family fights as a unit. The Parr family are loosely based on the Fantastic Four, and similarly, the Underminer is based on their foe Mole Man. It’s a pretty big in-joke, but Derlin was a glorified extra. So it’s a step up, and a character who could always return.

Are there other Star Wars actors whom you think went on to better sci-fi franchise roles? Let us know in comments!