THEN AND NOW: The cast of the 'Star Wars' prequels 15 years later
Bryn Gelbart
- "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," the final film in the prequel trilogy, came out 15 years ago.
- Some lead actors from the trilogy, like Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor, have gone on to have highly successful careers.
- Hayden Christensen started on television, but "Star Wars" boosted him to the big screen.
- Stars like Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Christopher Lee had thriving acting careers before and after the prequels.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
It's been 15 years since the final entry in the "Star Wars" prequels, "Revenge of the Sith," was released. At the time, the cast was filled with a mix of both experienced and new actors.
Here's what the cast of the prequel trilogy is up to now.
Read the original article on InsiderLee continued his successful acting career well into his 90s.
Lee had a long-time working relationship with Tim Burton. After the "Star Wars" prequels, he appeared in many of the director's movies, including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) and "Alice in Wonderland" (2010).
He also returned as the voice of Count Dooku in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (2008) and continued to reprise his role in the "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" series through "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" (2014).
His final feature-film credit was as the voice of The Boss/Mr. President in "Angels in Notting Hill" (2015).
Lee died of congestive heart failure at 93 years old in June 2015.
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Christopher Lee joined "Star Wars" as Count Dooku in "Attack of the Clones."
British actor Christopher Lee spent decades playing monsters and villains in British horror films.
Before "Star Wars," he was well known for his take on Dracula in Hammer Film Productions' "Dracula" films throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
While doing "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith," Lee was also playing Saruman in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, beginning with "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001).
After "Star Wars," Smits continued his successful TV career.
Not long after the prequels, Smits had a main role on the NBC political drama "The West Wing," and he has recently had featured roles on FX's "Sons of Anarchy" and ABC's "How to Get Away With Murder."
He also reprised the role of Organa in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (2016).
Smits is set to play Kevin Rosario in the upcoming film adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical "In the Heights."
Jimmy Smits is a TV actor who played Senator Bail Organa in the prequels.
Jimmy Smits made it big on TV as Victor Sifuentes on NBC's "LA Law" from 1986 to 1992 and Detective Bobby Simone on ABC's "NYPD Blue" from 1994 to 2004.
Smits was introduced as Bail Organa in "Attack of the Clones" and was brought back for "Revenge of the Sith."
Knightley is now an Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated actress.
Knightley didn't rise to fame until her role as Elizabeth Swann in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl"(2003).
However, not long after her "Star Wars" and "Pirates" roles, Knightley was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice" (2005).
In the years since, Knightley has found success in period-piece dramas like "Anna Karenina" (2012) and "Colette" (2018).
Her most recent credits include the drama "The Aftermath" (2019) and the historical drama "Misbehaviour" (2020). She is currently working on the Christmas comedy "Silent Night."
Keira Knightley made a brief appearance in "The Phantom Menace."
Keira Knightley had a small role as Padmé's decoy in "The Phantom Menace." This was one of Knightley's first film roles.
Neeson has continued his extremely successful acting career.
His success in "Star Wars" opened doors to other roles in action and sci-fi movies, like "Batman Begins" (2005), "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, and the "Taken" series.
His most recent film credits include the crime thriller "Widows" (2018) and the sci-fi sequel "Men in Black: International" (2019). He also made a voice cameo in "The Rise of Skywalker."
Neeson is currently working on several projects, including the upcoming film "Made in Italy."
Liam Neeson was a memorable part of "The Phantom Menace."
Liam Neeson was cast as Qui-Gon Jinn in "The Phantom Menace" after a decades-long career in film.
In the late 1990s, the Irish actor was best known for his Academy Award-nominated performance as Oskar Schindler in "Schindler's List" (1993).
Jackson has continued to work with long-time collaborators like Disney and Quentin Tarantino.
Now, Jackson is probably best known for his recurring role as Nick Fury in "The Avengers" movies and greater MCU.
He reprised his role as Frozone in "Incredibles 2" (2018) and he reprised the role of Elijah Price in "Glass" (2019), the second sequel to "Unbreakable" (2000).
After "Pulp Fiction," Jackson starred in a few more Quentin Tarantino films, including "Django Unchained" (2012) and "The Hateful Eight" (2015).
His new movie "Spiral" is set to release in 2021, and he's also set to work on the upcoming Marvel series "What If ...?"
Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Mace Windu at the height of his career.
Samuel L. Jackson was already a household name when he was cast to play the lightsaber-wielding Jedi master Mace Windu.
Before joining the "Star Wars" universe in "The Phantom Menace," Jackson spent the 1990s starring in critically acclaimed films "Jurassic Park" (1993), "Pulp Fiction" (1994), and "Jackie Brown" (1997).
During his time working on the prequels, Jackson also starred in M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" (2000) and provided the voice of Frozone in Pixar's "The Incredibles" (2004).
Portman went on to win two Golden Globes and an Academy Award for her acting work.
Portman has had a successful film career since the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, with starring roles in films like "V for Vendetta" (2005), "The Other Boleyn Girl" (2008), and "Lucy in the Sky" (2019).
Portman also won an Oscar for her role in "Black Swan" (2010) and was nominated again for her role in the biopic "Jackie" (2016).
Portman joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in "Thor" (2011) as Jane Foster and continued the role in "Thor: Dark World" (2013) and "Avengers: Endgame" (2019).
She also made her feature-length directorial debut with the Israeli-American biographical drama "A Tale of Love and Darkness" (2015).
Portman is set to reprise her role as Jane Foster in "Thor: Love and Thunder" and on Marvel's upcoming TV series "What If ...?"
Natalie Portman was a teenager when "The Phantom Menace" was filmed.
Before playing Padmé Amidala in "The Phantom Menace" (1999), Natalie Portman appeared in a few films including her breakout role in "Léon: The Professional" (1994).
Portman continued her role as Padmé in both "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith."
McGregor has continued acting in films and on TV shows — and he's also done some directing.
McGregor has found continued success in film. Among other credits, he starred in and made his directorial debut in "American Pastoral" (2016).
McGregor's most recent roles include Christopher Robin in "Christopher Robin" (2018), Danny Torrance in "Doctor Sleep" (2019), and Black Mask in "Birds of Prey" (2020). He also had a voice cameo in "The Rise of Skywalker."
On TV, McGregor played twin brothers on FX's "Fargo" in 2017, and he is currently set to reprise his role as Obi-Wan on an upcoming Disney Plus series based on the character.
The "Star Wars" prequels helped boost Ewan McGregor to international fame.
Ewan McGregor is a Scottish actor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the "Star Wars" prequels.
His first role was on the British TV mini-series "Lipstick on Your Collar" in 1993.
Other early work included his breakout film role in "Trainspotting" (1996) and his starring role in "Emma" (1996).
McGregor played Obi-Wan in all three prequels, starting with "The Phantom Menace" (1999). During this time, he was also nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in "Moulin Rouge" (2001) and starred in Tim Burton's "Big Fish" (2003).
Christensen has continued his film career.
Christensen has continued to act in movies such as "Jumper" (2008) and "American Heist" (2014).
More recently, he appeared in the rom-com "Little Italy" (2018) opposite Emma Roberts and starred in "The Last Man" (2019).
He also made a brief voice cameo in the latest "Star Wars" film, "The Rise of Skywalker" (2019).
Hayden Christensen was a child actor on Canadian TV before starring in "Attack of the Clones" (2002).
Hayden Christensen is best known for his performance as Anakin Skywalker in the "Star Wars" prequels, but he started his career on television.
Christensen's first role was in the German-Canadian series "Family Passions" (1993). He went on to appear on Canadian kids shows like YTV's "Goosebumps" and "Are You Afraid of the Dark" as well as Fox Family's Canadian-American drama "Higher Ground."
In between the release of "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith" (2005), Christensen received critical acclaim for playing Stephen Glass in the biographical drama "Shattered Glass" (2003).
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