We could’ve had Dev Patel in the new Star Wars movies
In an interview with Total Film, the actor looks back at his Star Wars audition
Film News Dev Patel
Dev Patel is one of the lucky Skins alums—like Daniel Kaluuya—who’s had a massive film career after getting his start on TV. Patel stars in The Green Knight, one of the most anticipated flicks of the year, where he plays King Arthur’s nephew Sir Gawain, who goes on a quest to find the eponymous knight. However, despite being an Oscar-nominated actor, he couldn’t land one of the most coveted roles in Hollywood.
In an interview with Total Film, Patel talks about auditioning for one of the recent Star Wars movies, and not getting the part. “I remember, I think I was doing Marigold 2, and I sent them an iPhone video from my trailer in India. The next minute, I got a call-back, and I was there, and that was fascinating.”
He didn’t reveal which character or Star Wars film he auditioned for, but given The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel filming timeline, we can infer that it was The Force Awakens. Though he likely auditioned to play Finn or Poe, part of us hopes he auditioned to play Kylo Ren—though nobody plays the emo villain as well as Adam Driver. And personally, this writer thinks that Patel would’ve been perfectly cast in the good Star Wars prequel Rogue One, but alas, we’ll have to see if he ever gets his chance to be in a galaxy far, far away.
Total Film also asked him if he’d be open to starring in a superhero blockbuster, and Patel doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about the possibility. “I mean, look, I’m not opposed to it. Those movies are a real spectacle when done right,” he says. “I guess if I fit in these worlds… I don’t know. The alchemy hasn’t been right for me, personally yet. These journeys with people like David [Lowery, director of The Green Knight], and stuff like that, have really been the most nourishing.”
19 Comments
He’s better off. All those movies sucked. (Rouge One the exception)
The internet is great cause people can be openly wrong about anything and they have that right.
Most of the enjoyment I’ve been getting out of Dev Patel these days is in the comments section of Facebook ads for the The Green Knight seeing racist weirdos whining about how having a South Asian dude in their talking fox movie is “historically inaccurate”. In other news, I am very pumped for The Green Knight.
Ahhh yes… Historical accuracy. That’s what I’m looking for in my adventure film with talking foxes, giant children living in foggy mountains, and a… *checks notes*… villainous tree creature with a fuck-all giant ax. Accuracy, I tell you, just as it happened!
See I was thinking either Bodhi or Cassian from Rogue One.
Nothing against Diego Luna but he was boring AF as Cassian. Patel would probably have given a more interesting performance.
Nobody who was in these movies seems very happy about it. At best you have people like Oscar Issac and Adam Driver who have very publicly said they’re done with them, and have no interest in returning (of course, if Disney shows up with a big enough check that tune might change). At worst you have John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran, who were subjected to terrible and racist treatment by “fans” and possibly the studio. So, honestly, I think it was the best thing for him to not deal with any of this.
Yup. Blockbusters aren’t great fun to shoot for an actor. Even ignoring that the characters usually aren’t that well written, the shoots are loooong, you spend a lot of time repeating boring mechanical movements and then you have to spend weeks or months on endless 8 minute press junket interviews. Obviously there are worse jobs, but I can see why many actors would rather a short, character focussed indie drama.Especially since being anything other than a straight white guy in a big genre movie seems to draw the ire of millions of the worst people on the planet.
I mean in the cases named you have the fact it was probably what will become the textbook case of how not to run a modern blockbuster franchise.
Poe Dameron is probably the most interesting and unexplored character from the last trilogy, and a Mandalorian type series for him could be awesome. We’ll just try and forget the “no, no he’s straight” love interest they shoehorned in the last movie.
If made today, TPM star Jake Lloyd would have… (insert really tragic thing here).
Patel could have been a good Kylo — his Prince Zuko, another angsty villain with a redemption arc, was one of the few good things in The Last Airbender — but he’s easy to imagine as dashing pilot Poe Dameron. I think the real missed opportunity, however, was Dr. Strange. Nothing wrong with Cumberbatch, but Patel’s look and range of personas reallly fits a sorcerer too.
Patel would have been a good Kylo, but for as little as Adam Driver resembles Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, Patel would take things a bit out of the realm of believability (unless he was adopted, which honestly would have been a neat wrinkle in his character).
unless he was adopted, which honestly would have been a neat wrinkle in his character
Orphans, abandoned and adopted kids and virgin births are a Star Wars trademark. Also, Patel and Lando kind of have the same hairstyle 😉
The issue with the newer movies has been on the production side of things, not the actors. I think casting has been pretty great, most did a great job, and I really just can’t see Dev in any major role where he would have been better than who was cast. With that was said, I’d love to see him down the road in Rogue Squadron or whatever comes afterward.
He would’ve been a good Finn; Oscar Isaac probably was better as Poe. And Adam Driver was perfect as Kylo Ren.
Alternate headline: “Dev Patel narrowly avoided having to be in Star Wars movie”
Dev Patel is one of the lucky Skins alums—like Daniel Kaluuya—who’s had a massive film career after getting his start on TVDev Patel, Daniel Kaluuya, Nicholas Hoult and Kaya Scodelario have all had great or at least very good careers from that first generation of Skins alone (though Scodelario was in the first generation but wasn’t in a starring role until the second). On top of that, Chris Dempsie and Hannah Murray had decent recurring roles on Game of Thrones, among other things. Admittedly Hoult was already on the way up, having starred in About A Boy as a child.I didn’t particularly like Skins, but it knew how to cast.
Dev Patel would make a great Jedi and he still could. I’m kind of glad he wasn’t in any of the Disney Star Wars movies so far because they’ve all been set in eras where there are no meaty parts for Jedi characters. Let’s have Dev Patel in the Old Republic at some point down the line. And he has to keep the beard.