The best boy band cut from the worst Star Wars movie ever.
Pa Chris Snellgrove
| Published
While critics may hate their Bobby vibe, NSYNC is arguably the best boy band in the world, especially when you consider the later cultural and musical influence of breakout star Justin Timberlake. Amazingly, when NSYNC was in its prime, this best boy band appeared in arguably the worst Star Wars movie. In the 2023 series Hotthe band confirmed that they were originally going to perform at Attack of the clones but their cameo was ultimately cut from the film.
Bye Bye NSYNC in Star Wars
Part HotThe charm is the wonderful questions asked by host Sean Evans, and in this episode he eventually asked NSYNC if they were in the second Star Wars prequel. He asked if they were really going to be in a Jedi Knight movie, and Lance Bass pointed out that not the entire band almost made a cameo appearance…just Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chase, and Joey Fatone. However, Kirkpatrick was quick to point out the obvious about their cameo: “she never made it to the screen.”
NSYNC members Lance Bass and Justin Timberlake recalled their annoyance at not being initially invited to star in the second Star Wars prequel. “Me and Lance were so upbeat,” Timberlake said. This prompted Bass to respond very bluntly: “they got kicked out anyway, so it doesn’t even matter.”
NSYNC came so close to Star Wars.
The fact that NSYNC almost appeared in a Star Wars movie caused a stir among fans community years ago (more on that soon), but even most superfans don’t realize how close the boy band came to appearing in Attack of the clones. They did get some combat training, the kind that would ensure they looked at least halfway convincing when they got involved in the climactic battle on Geonosis. Joey Fatone sheepishly admitted that the rehearsals also sounded convincing because, “when we were doing the scenes,” the musicians were “literally … going ‘woom-woom’ like idiots.”
Interestingly, the only reason NSYNC was invited to appear in the Attack of the clones primarily because the daughter of Star Wars producer Rick McCallum was a big fan of the band. The cameo was cut for two reasons, the first being SAG-AFTRA rules regarding extras. Joey Fatone later admitted that “Normally they have to pay SAG for the rights to it” and “We just signed a confidential thing — which we didn’t say anything about — but they had to cut us out of it.”
Although Fatone’s story is a bit vague, it helps explain why NSYNC didn’t appear in the second Star Wars prequel. Namely, that George Lucas and crew didn’t want the drama associated with SAG. However, there was another reason why they were cut, which was revealed by Faton’s brother Steve back in 2015. In fact, the appearance of the band in the Attack of the clones this was rumored long before the film’s release, and caused such a backlash among fans that their appearance (complete with Jedi robes and Padawan scythes) was scrapped entirely.
In retrospect, killing NSYNC in a Star Wars cameo was the best. At the time, the fandom was already stunned by the low quality A ghostly threat. After that first prequel, there was much speculation as to whether George Lucas had lost the creative vision that led him to create that famous galaxy far, far away. Fortunately, Lucas helped say “bye, bye, bye” to that speculation by cutting the band out of the film altogether.
Source: People
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