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Leonardo DiCaprio is now not any stranger to astronomical facets. One of essentially the most finished actors of his skills, DiCaprio has played some of essentially the most typically loved characters in cinema since his feature debut in “Critters 3.” Most now not too lengthy ago delivering undoubtedly one of 2025’s supreme performances in Paul Thomas Anderson’s mega-hit “One Battle After Another,” DiCaprio has spent the past 30 years as undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s must-explore performers. However no subject embodying all the pieces from drowning heartthrobs to noxious plantation homeowners, the star has but to nasty galactic frontiers. To some cinephiles’ fear, alternatively, a DiCaprio-led sci-fi franchise got here surprisingly shut to fruition, because the actor almost joined “Star Wars” as its most indelible personality: Anakin Skywalker, also called Darth Vader.
The revelation got here to light in the direction of a 2015 interview with ShortList. This reality typically is barely jarring for the franchise’s legion of fans, particularly folks who were launched to the “Star Wars” universe with Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. To some fans, the switch would were welcomed, as Christensen’s efficiency was once significantly maligned by critics and older, gatekeeping fans alike.
However swapping Christensen for DiCaprio as The Chosen One for “Star Wars” Episode II and III is a sport of “what if” with unfathomable repercussions across movie history, now not simplest morphing the high-tail of everybody’s licensed rogue Jedi, but potentially robbing the personality of some of its supreme performances. And since DiCaprio is now not rumored to be in any upcoming Star Wars releases, such hypothesis would maybe be essentially based simplest on the actor’s feedback detailing the franchise’s influence on his most modern motion photos, as he did on The Ringer’s The Mountainous Image podcast in September 2025.
DiCaprio declined a role in Star Wars and various a ramification of motion photos
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According to Leonardo DiCaprio, George Lucas approached him about taking part in Skywalker in the movie’s prequels. Then in his mid-20s, DiCaprio was once in the course of undoubtedly one of essentially the most lauded early-profession runs in movie history, following up his first Academy Award nomination for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” with performances because the titular lead in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” (1996) and Jack Dawson in “Titanic” (1997). Despite such success, DiCaprio told ShortList’s Marc Chacksfield that he “just didn’t feel ready to take that dive.”
Taking part in a younger would-be Darth Vader was once a long way from the finest role in a multi-billion-buck franchise Leo handed up, as DiCaprio states he’d already declined to star alongside Val Kilmer as Robin in Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever.” Around the time he snubbed “Star Wars,” the budding star was once approached for the role in Sam Raimi’s 2002 classic “Spider-Man.” According to DiCaprio, his reasoning for declining profitable franchises was once largely uniform — pun meant: The younger actor simply didn’t if reality be told feel ready to don the suit.
Pointless to roar, these model blockbusters are a long way from the finest significant hits DiCaprio has declined. Reportedly offered lead roles in motion photos like “American Psycho,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “The Matrix,” and “Nightmare Alley,” DiCaprio’s listing of declined roles reads better than the IMDb of almost every a ramification of actor of his skills. However per an August 2025 interview with Paul Thomas Anderson for Esquire, one role aloof haunts DiCaprio bigger than the entire leisure. “My biggest regret is not doing ‘Boogie Nights,'” the actor acknowledged, referencing the director’s provide to star as Dirk Diggler, played by Impress Wahlberg. “It was a profound movie of my generation … I just thought it was a masterpiece.”
A Star Wars butterfly safe
Though a lightsaber-wielding Leonardo DiCaprio is a stress-free idea experiment, the extra attention-grabbing ask is how the role would possibly well per chance also simply need modified movie history. Launched in 2002 and 2005, respectively, “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith” entailed grueling filming schedules across Tunisia, Spain, Italy, Australia, Thailand, China, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. How this agenda would possibly well per chance also simply need impacted Leonardo DiCaprio’s filmography is complex to verify, in consequence of while Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman both starred in extra than one a ramification of motion photos all the plan thru the years they filmed the three “Star Wars” prequels, Hayden Christensen simplest seemed in the journalism drama “Shattered Glass.” This is why it be unclear what number of opportunities DiCaprio would’ve needed to present up on to movie the trilogy.
DiCaprio spent the early 2000s delivering among the strongest performances of his profession. Infamously selective along with his movie alternate alternate strategies, DiCaprio took prestigious roles with among the enterprise’s supreme working directors. That duration was once when DiCaprio led Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” (2002), “The Aviator” (2004), and “The Departed” (2006), Steven Spielberg’s hijinks-encumbered adventure movie “Catch Me If You Can” (2002), and Edward Zwick’s thriller-with-a-sense of right and wrong “Blood Diamond” (2006).
Pointless to roar, there’s no telling where DiCaprio’s profession would possibly well per chance also simply need long gone following “Star Wars.” Whereas he positively would’ve outdueled Christensen, the prequel’s infamously clunky dialogue likely would’ve rendered whatever gains the actor would possibly well per chance also simply need incurred as incremental. As such, adding DiCaprio to the Duel on Mustafar would now not be price shedding any of his early 2000s performances. Moreover, for youthful audiences that grew up with the prequels, Christensen’s Skywalker remains a cultural touchstone price lauding. Thus, fans will simply can luxuriate in to aloof be squawk material with the Force ghosts of what would possibly well per chance were. That is, except DiCaprio decides to invent a shock cameo in the drawing shut “Star Wars” trilogy.
