Naturally, the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens has already inspired a ton of nostalgia in us all for the original trilogy that began with Episode IV: A New Hope in 1977. I mean, who didn't squeal a little bit when Han Solo and Chewbacca appeared at the end of the second trailer released last month?
However, let's all take a moment to remember the Star Wars prequel trilogy, even if most fans would rather forget that this ever happened. Specifically, let's all remember the fact that *NSYNC almost made a cameo in Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Yeah, that's right. These prequels could have been a lot worse — or better, depending how you feel about the late '90s, early 2000s mega-popular boy band, I suppose. A few months before Attack of the Clones was released in May 2002, Lucasfilm confirmed rumors that the members of *NSYNC would be making some sort of cameo in the movie. Unsurprisingly, this announcement was met with an immediate backlash from fans, and Lucasfilm soon pulled *NSYNC's cameo.
Or so we thought. The Huffington Post published an investigation into the matter Friday, along with an oral history of how the cameos came to be from Joey Fatone and his brother Steven. Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass were apparently "too tired and weary" from the group's PopOdyssey tour to participate in the filming, but the Fatone brothers as well as *NSYNC members JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick filmed two cameos in Attack of the Clones as Jedi Knights in the Geonosis battle and a meeting between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda.
Based on a set of characteristics that Joey Fatone was supposed to have in his role as a Jedi during the Geonosis battle, which included fighting droids in the background of the Geonosis battle, using a blue lightsaber and having a shaved head with a mohawk, The Huffington Post reported that the *NSYNC-er may have snuck into the movie in the moment from the scene below.
Neither Lucasfilm nor more than a dozen current and ex-Lucasfilm employees would comment on the clip, according to The Huffington Post. The Fatone family agreed that the Jedi in the background does look like Joey, but they could not confirm it's actually him either. However, The Huffington Post points out that it's certainly plausible that Lucasfilm did not want to spend any more time and money re-shooting lightsaber-wielding extras, so perhaps they just used the footage with the band members.
Well, we can only hope that *NSYNC did actually end up in Attack of the Clones. What is Star Wars without hope, anyway?
Head over to The Huffington Post to read the full story of *NSYNC's Star Wars cameo that could have been.
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