'Star Wars' Casts Prince Harry & William As Stormtroopers Because Nothing Makes Sense
Since Disney purchased Lucasfilm and resurrected the Star Wars franchise, actors and celebrities practically begging for roles. Cameos and Easter eggs were part of the package for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, including Simon Pegg as Unkar Plutt, Bill Hader as BB-8, and Daniel Craig as the Stormtrooper Rey uses the Force on. The next installment, Episode VIII's The Last Jedi, seems to be promising more of the same with details on Star Wars' casting of Prince William and Prince Harry as Stormtroopers in the upcoming film.
They're not the only ones who will be under white helmets for the sequence, which apparently will take place with the now-former Stormtrooper Finn, who goes undercover with the First Order. Along with the royals, two more major UK names — actor Tom Hardy and singer Gary Barlow— will also be in the scene.
...not only will the two royals, plus Hardy and Barlow, appear in The Last Jedi and as Stormtroopers, but they all appear together in the same scene. THR understands that the four will be seen guarding Boyega's character, Finn, in an elevator, surely making it Star Wars' most secretly star-studded sequence of all time.
Of the four, Tom Hardy is the biggest actor, and will probably get most of whatever dialogue there is. He's also got lots of experience being able to act with his face covered up, both during his turn as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and more recently as a WWI fighter pilot in Dunkirk. Gary Barlow, who has done reality TV judging on and off in the last decade, may also get to deliver a line or two.
As for the princes, who I like to think of as Harry Windsor and Bill Cambridge, they've got lots of experience standing at attention.
The end of the year is a big time for the royal family as it is. Queen Elizabeth, at 91, is celebrating her 70th wedding anniversary to Prince Philip next week on Nov. 20. They've been married since 1947.
Following that, The Crown Season 2 will be released via Netflix. That may not seem like an actual event for Buckingham Palace, which certainly will not be formally recognizing it or anything, but it's been made know that the sympathetically conservative and royalist bent portrayal of Elizabeth's early years has been met with approval.
The biggest news, of course, is the one we're all waiting on: Prince Harry's now-seemingly-inevitable engagement to American actress Meghan Markle. It was revealed this week that her contract with the USA show Suits was up and she was not planning to return.
Royal watchers are curious if the announcement of an engagement will come at the end of the year or wait until the spring. But if the princes have taken a little time out to turn up on the big screen themselves, and might walk a Star Wars red carpet or two in the UK for a lark, they will certainly have their hands full while the palace works on the roll out of its newest incoming member. Timing will also have to take into consideration the arrival of Bill and Cathy (aka Kate Middleton) Cambridge's third (and most likely final) child, which is due in April of next year.
As for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Brits won't be the only ones making cameos. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also supposed to have a voice-over part, and there will probably be more revealed as the run up to the movie's opening continues.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be arriving in theaters everywhere on Dec. 18, 2017.
