lonemagpie

Star Wars Classic Hollywood fancasting

Yeah, so in a Tumblr post I got on to thinking Basil Rathbone’d be an Imperial officer if SW had been made back in the day, and then one thing led to another and there were suggestions of who’d play who, and…

I’m going to have to think about this and do it properly. So…

Let’s imagine the Prequels were made in the late 30s (say. 1938), the Holy Trilogy around 1942, and The Force Awakens maybe around 47 or in the 50s… (For bonus points, you just know if it was silent era you’d have Werner Krause and Baby Connie as Palpy and Anakin, with Fairbanks Jr as Obi Wan.)

Palpatine- Claude Rains

Qui-Gon Jinn: Douglas Fairbanks Jr

Obi Wan Kenobi: David Niven

Yoda (voice, since he’s a puppet): Um… Nah, OK I’m stuck with this one.

Padme: Olivia de Havilland

Darth Maul: Fred Cavens (what the hell, let’s give him an actual role)

Anakin Skywalker: I’m tempted to say Sebastian Shaw who’d be the right age for adult Ani… But for swashbuckling purposes, Tyrone Power.

Jabba the Hutt: Sidney Greenstreet

Nute Gunray: Peter Lorre

Zam Wessell: Bonita Granville

Count Dooku: Basil Rathbone

Jar Jar Binks: Stan Laurel

Threepio: Cary Grant (need him in somewhere, but the voice is what would be useful)

Jango Fett: Humphrey Bogart, unless he’s Han, in which case John Wayne.

Luke Skywalker: Richard Attenborough (he’d be 19 or so in ‘41/42 - he’s 24 in Brighton Rock), or John Justin.

Leia: Katharine Hepburn

Han Solo: Either Errol Flynn, with Alan Hale as Chewie, or Humphrey Bogart (who’d pull off The Force Awakens’s Han better)

Darth Vader: Woody Strode, if we want to stick with a black actor of the right age

Grand Moff Tarkin: Conrad Veidt

Rey: Maureen O’Hara

Finn: Ossie Davis

Kylo Ren: Christopher Lee

General Hux: Vincent Price

Snoke: Orson Welles

So, yeah, I was chatting elsewhere the other day about this, and the thought has stuck with me, so I’m going to have to go along with casting a 1938 Blake’s 7…

So, in order of introduction:

Roj Blake - Obviously the studio would insist on a hero type like Errol Flynn, but I’d disagree. Blake needs to look a little rougher, and actually I’d go with Zorro star Tyrone Power.

Of course, if we were casting this for for 15 years later, in the early-mid 50s, then Gregory Peck is the definitive and only way to go.

Vila Restal- Peter Lorre, no negotiation is allowed. He can do crooked and he can do light and fluffy.

Jenna Stannis- Katharine Hepburn, IMO. Would work as the snappy pilot. Partly because Kate Mulgrew, who played Janeway in Voyager has often avowedly modelled herself on Hepburn.

Kerr Avon- OK, you just know I’d want Basil Rathbone for this, but you also know that the studio, seeing him as a posh villain, would want him to play Travis… If I couldn’t have Basil, then…

The problem with Avon is that season 1 and 2 Avon is so different from the way he ends up, you’d almost be tempted to recast half way through. I mean, if we didn’t have hindsight of season 3 and 4, I’d be tempted to cast Cary Grant, who’d be ideal for the snark of early Avon (go on, imagine “staying with you requires a degree of stupidity of which I no longer feel capable” in Cary Grant’s voice) and he can do darker than usual, as seen in Notorious, but I couldn’t imagine him in season 4…

Olag Gan- Stop me before I suggest John Wayne for shits and giggles. Actually Lon Chaney Jr would work here. My ideal choice would be Robert Mitchum, but I’m not sure he’d be old enough in 1938.

Cally- Joan Crawford, oh yes. No arguments.

Servalan- An unusual choice here, Mary Pickford. She actually retired from acting in 1930, having been a child star in the teens, but I figure that since she was one of the founders of United Artists, she has the wherewithal to play a professional boss like Servalan, so I’d lure her out of retirement…

Travis- Not sure.

Zen- Mel Blanc

Orac- Claude Rains, after appearing as Ensor

GUEST STARS-

Conrad Veidt- Krantor in Gambit (extra fun if Sebastian Shaw is Toise), then Dorian in Rescue.

Bogie- Bayban. Come on, it would be fucking gold.

Henry Daniell- Carnell

Maybe I’ll do Tarrant, Dayna, Soolin and Slave later…