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No two movie franchises have had a bigger impact on film than Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. It’s impossible to measure what the original Star Wars trilogy has meant to pop culture. There have been a plethora of movies and TV series since, and a half-century after the first movie debuted, the franchise remains as popular as ever. The same can be said for The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson‘s original trilogy is Oscar-winning perfection, and it too has had several spinoffs.
With so much content out there, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to find out that there have been many times when a Star Wars actor later appeared in The Lord of the Rings. Some, like Christopher Lee, are more obvious, but there are many you may be unaware of. For example, did you know Elijah Wood appeared in the Star Wars universe? Here are nine times when actors showed up in the two game-changing franchises.
1
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee is a Hammer Films horror icon, having played iconic characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and the Mummy in the 1950s. In the 2000s, Lee had a great final act in two mammoth franchises. The Lord of the Rings barely came first, where Lee first played the evil wizard Saruman, the main villain in 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He also appeared in the other two films in the franchise.
A year after The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Lee co-starred in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones as Count Dooku, a Sith Lord. Lee’s Shakespearean stage presence added so much to the evil character. He returned for Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and also reprised the role in a voice acting capacity for 2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
2
Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis is a phenomenal actor, but his most famous roles never show his real face. Serkis is the master of motion capture for movies like King Kong and Planet of the Apes, and most famous of all, his iconic performance as Gollum (“My precious!”) in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Gollum will return to the franchise when Serkis directs The Hunt for Gollum, which is set to be released next year.
Serkis has also played not one but two characters in Star Wars. The first involved more motion capture as Supreme Leader Snoke in both Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. Serkis came back to do voice work in Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. The actor got to be on screen in the flesh when he took on the role of Kino Roy in Andor.
3
Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood was just 20 when he landed the lead as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. Wood, who was already a well-known actor, suddenly became a household name. He returned as Frodo in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and will be back in 2027 for The Hunt for Gollum.
Wood’s time in Star Wars is not so well-known. The animated series Star Wars Resistance ran for two seasons on the Disney Channel. In it, over several episodes, Wood voiced the character Jace Rucklin, a cocky racer who becomes a TIE pilot for the First Order.
4
Anthony Daniels
In 1977, Anthony Daniels began a decades-long run as the droid C-3PO. The actor played the character in all nine main Star Wars movies, along with Rogue One, The Clone Wars, and Ahsoka. Daniels has done voice work for other Star Wars roles as well, and most recently appeared as the voice of an Air Traffic Control Droid in The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Daniels has the distinction of being the first actor to be in both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings because, a year after New Hope, he voiced Legolas Greenleaf in the little-seen 1978 animated film version of The Lord of the Rings.
5
Karl Urban
Karl Urban has played memorable characters in the likes of Dredd, Star Trek, and The Boys, but the big breakout for the actor from New Zealand was when he played Eomer, the Rider of Rohan, in two Lord of the Rings films, The Two Towers and Return of the King.
Urban has a much smaller role in the world of Star Wars. In Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, as a fun favor for Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, Urban plays a stormtrooper. He’s only in the film briefly and gets just one line, saying “Knights of Ren.”
6
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Monaghan had a one-two punch of huge hits in the 2000s. He was one of the stars of the ABC series Lost. Before that, he played the heroic and hilarious Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck in all three Lord of the Rings films and has done voice work for video games.
Like other Lord of the Rings stars, Monaghan also has a small part in the Star Wars universe. For The Rise of Skywalker, the actor is Beaumont Kin, a soldier in the Resistance. He’s only around briefly in the first act for a few lines, but unlike Urban, audiences get to see the actor’s face.
7
Richard Armitage
Unlike others on this list, Richard Armitage is not in Peter Jackson’s original Lord of the Rings trilogy. Instead, he first shows up in the prequel franchise, The Hobbit. As the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield, who helps lead the heroes on their quest, Armitage is in all three Hobbit movies.
Rather than appearing in the newer Star Wars films that came out after The Lord of the Rings, you have to go backward for Armitage. In 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Armitage’s first-ever film role came as an unnamed Naboo Fighter Pilot.
8
Bruce Spence
New Zealand actor Bruce Spence has been acting in small roles since the 1970s. Spence is not in the theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but in the Extended Edition. Hidden under some terrifying makeup and mouth-widening digital effects, the actor becomes the Mouth of Sauron.
Spence looked just as creepy two years later when he landed the role of the evil Tion Medon in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In the film, Tion helps Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) find General Grievous.
9
Sala Baker
Lastly is another New Zealand native, stuntman and actor Sala Baker. In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Baker had a small but important role, where he showed up in the prologue scene as the Dark Lord Sauron. He’s part of the entire trilogy as well, hidden under makeup as other characters, such as a goblin and an orc.
Two decades later, Baker made his debut in Star Wars, not in one of the films, but in the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian. For one episode, he becomes a dog-faced Klatooinian Raider Captain named Sastos.
- Release Date
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December 19, 2001
- Runtime
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178 Minutes
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Shawn Van Horn
Almontather Rassoul
