Star Wars movies have generally relied on the talents of unknown actors. However, a Star Wars film almost featured cameos from two of the biggest celebrities in the world: Prince William and Prince Harry. Here’s why they didn’t they end up in the finished film. 

The most surprising cameos in history

Prince William and Prince Harry are major fans of Star Wars. According to Newsweek, they visited the set of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in June 2016. The brothers took a picture with several Star Wars notables, including John Boyega, Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, and The Last Jedi‘s writer and director, Rian Johnson. Rumors swirled shortly thereafter that the princes made cameos in The Last Jedi. 

Prince William and Prince Harry filmed cameos as Stromtroopers. Their scene featured the princes, actor Tom Hardy, and singer Gary Barlow guarding Boyega’s character, Finn. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Boyega enjoyed filming the scene. He felt the combination of the royals and Star Wars was “the best of both worlds.”

Why the princes weren’t right for their parts

Johnson decided to remove the prince’s scene from The Last Jedi because they were substantially taller than the other Stormtroopers, making them a touch distracting. Stormtroopers are required to be played by actors who are 5’11”, reports Business Insider. Prince William and Prince Harry are respectively 6′ 3″ and 6′ 1″. 

According to The Telegraph, Boyega was apologetic over the removal of the scene. “I did personally apologize to them… and said, ‘Sorry you were cut out of the film.’ And Will was like, ‘I probably just need to work more on the skills.’ I was like, ‘Maybe, bruv.’”

The Last Jedi divided Star Wars fans and the public at large. The world will never know how fans would have reacted to a William/Harry cameo. The princes can take comfort in the fact that they’re not the only celebrities t see their cameos cut from a Star Wars film. 

The princes were in the same situation as…NSYNC?

In 2002, boy band NSYNC were at their commercial peak. According to CBS News, the daughters of director George Lucas and producer Rick McCullum loved the band, so they convinced their fathers to allow NSYNC to film cameos for Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. 

IGN reported the band were featured in two scenes – one as Jedi Knights and another in a crowd on the planet Naboo. Joey Fatone revealed the group filmed their cameos during a break from their PopOdyssey tour. These scenes were deleted from the final cut of the film, as many Star Wars fans were upset by the idea of NSYNC having any presence in the franchise. 

Fantone revealed: “I’m going to make it officially known [LucasFilm] dropped [the scenes] because people made a big deal about it. We’re not going to be in it and I’m not going to comment on it any more.”

Maybe these excised celebrity cameos would have added to Star Wars. Maybe they would have been distracting. Either way, behind the scenes stories like this are catnip for Star Wars fans.