Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace?

There wasn't a more hotly anticipated film in 1999 than "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace." It had been 16 years since the last cinematic visit to George Lucas' galaxy far, far away, but in that time, "Star Wars" had only grown more popular, with scores of novels, comic books, video games, and toys all coming out through the 1990s. Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox had primed the pump for a new "Star Wars" film by releasing CGI-enhanced "Special Editions" of "Star Wars" (1977), "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), and "Return of the Jedi" (1983) into theaters in 1997, giving audiences a taste of what a brand new sequel with state-of-the-art special effects could look like. Fans' expectations were understandably high — perhaps too high.

"The Phantom Menace" was released to great fanfare, incredible box office returns, and decidedly mixed reviews. Its innovations have influenced Hollywood storytelling for decades, with prequels of existing film franchises now commonplace and CGI becoming a standard tool for blockbuster movies to build sets, costumes, and even entire characters from scratch. For many members of the film's cast, however, the whiplash of success followed by fan ridicule was a lot to navigate, with some bearing the brunt of the backlash more than others. Now, over two decades later, let's take a look at what happened to the cast of "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace."

There are essentially two ways of looking at the character of Jar Jar Binks, played by Ahmed Best in "The Phantom Menace." As an early example of how motion capture technology can render a live-action performance in CGI, it's a triumph, paving the way for everything from Andy Serkis' Gollum to Josh Brolin's Thanos. As a character the audience should be able to tolerate for more than five seconds, though, Jar Jar is a disaster — a childish bumbler whose long dreadlock-style ears and patois-like speech edge uncomfortably close to racial caricature. None of this should have been blamed on Best, but unfortunately, the actor became an easy target for fans' ire.

The New York-born Best was plucked from the touring ensemble of the Broadway hit "Stomp," with "The Phantom Menace" being his first credited film role. Despite the backlash, Best appeared as Jar Jar in the next two films and voiced the character in video games and animated series, but he had difficulty finding meaningful work beyond Lucasfilm. In a wide-ranging 2017 interview with Wired, Best admits to feeling frustrated and depressed that he did not have the immediate success that some of his co-stars enjoyed. Feelings about "The Phantom Menace" and Jar Jar have softened a bit in recent years, however, and Best was given a hero's welcome by convention-goers at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration Chicago. In 2020, he donned his own set of Jedi robes as host of the Disney+ kids competition series "Jedi Temple Challenge."

From the very first "Star Wars" film in 1977 up through "The Rise of Skywalker" in 2019, the series has often filled out its ranks of supporting characters, aliens, and monsters with acclaimed British actors. Oliver Ford Davies is one of them, turning up in all three prequels as Sio Bibble, governor of Naboo under Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman).

Born in 1939, Davies was performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company as early as age 20. Many of his most notable onscreen roles have been in televised adaptations of RSC productions, such as "Richard II," "Henry V," and "Troilus and Cressida," all within the 2010s. "Game of Thrones" viewers might recognize Davies as the duplicitous Maester Cressen from the Season 2 premiere "The North Remembers," while Rowan Atkinson fans may know him as the Archbishop of Canterbury in Atkinson's popular James Bond parody "Johnny English." In 2021, Davies played celebrated 20th-century author Graham Greene in the filmed stage play "A Splinter of Ice." He has been nominated for an Olivier Award for his stage work three times, winning once for the David Hare play "Racing Demon."

British actress Keira Knightley was still in her teens and had just a handful of acting credits when she was cast in "The Phantom Menace" as Sabe, Queen Amidala's handmaiden and occasional decoy. It's a small role, which is perhaps why her time in "Star Wars" is little more than a fun footnote in what has become a massively successful career in film.

Knightley wouldn't have to wait long after "Star Wars" to become a household name. In 2002, she starred in Gurinder Chadha's sleeper hit "Bend it Like Beckham," and she followed that up with megahits like "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "Love Actually." Knightley would return to the "Pirates" franchise throughout her career, most recently in 2017's "Dead Men Tell No Tales," but otherwise she's mostly eschewed those sorts of big effects-heavy spectacles. Her collaborations with director Joe Wright on "Pride and Prejudice," "Atonement," and "Anna Karenina" are some of her most celebrated roles. "Pride and Prejudice" netted her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for the 2014 Alan Turin biopic "The Imitation Game." In addition to her film work, Knightley has long been the face of Coco Mademoiselle perfume.

Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid is one of the few stars of the original "Star Wars" trilogy to reprise their role for the prequels. His "Return of the Jedi" character, Emperor Palpatine, was played by Clive Revill in the original release of "The Empire Strikes Back," with McDiarmid taking over the role for the third film under a heavy layer of makeup (and replacing Revill in subsequent versions of "Empire"). For "The Phantom Menace," released 16 years later, he played a younger, healthier Palpatine, making power plays behind the scenes as Naboo's delegate in the Galactic Senate while secretly manipulating events as the sinister Sith Lord Darth Sidious.

Palpatine's rise to power is one of the better-executed plotlines in the often shabby prequel trilogy — a cautionary tale of a society sacrificing freedom for security. McDiarmid guided the character from a backstage schemer to a full-bore dictator, then reprised the role one last time (presumably) in 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker." In between "Star Wars" gigs, he's been a frequent presence on British stages and television sets, starring in the 18th-century crime series "City of Vice" in 2008 and playing a featured role in the 2017 historical adventure series "Britannia." In 2006, McDiarmid won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for the revival of Brian Friel's "Faith Healer," opposite fellow Tony winner Ralph Fiennes.

Prior to "The Phantom Menace," Irish actor Liam Neeson was best known for sensitive performances in prestige dramas like "Schindler's List," "Nell," and "Michael Collins." Only a couple of credits on his resume, like Sam Raimi's gonzo superhero flick "Darkman" and the Scottish rebel biopic "Rob Roy," would suggest the two-fisted man of action he has become on film in the last two decades. The role of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn splits the difference between these competing trends in Neeson's career, both meditative and forceful (no pun intended) and, it must be said, perhaps not the brightest lightsaber in the Jedi Temple. When his padawan Obi-Wan utters the series catchphrase "I have a bad feeling about this," Qui-Gon responds with "I don't sense anything," moments before they are attacked.

Neeson would take on a similar mentor role in the 2005 comic book reboot "Batman Begins," but his "ass-kicking dad" era wouldn't begin in earnest until 2008's "Taken." Since then, Neeson has released a new action feature every year or two. Titles like "The Grey," "Unknown," and "A Walk in the Tombstones" lean on his aging gravitas in the service of revenge plots, thrillers, and survival tales. He's also willing to lampoon his own image, as in 2014's "The Lego Movie" and Seth McFarland's parody Western "A Million Ways to Die in the West."

Natalie Portman made a name for herself at a young age with a series of affecting turns in heavy adult dramas like "The Professional" and "Heat." Those were the types of roles she generally played before being cast as Padmé Amidala — Queen of Naboo and future mother to Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia — and for the most part, they're the types of roles she's played since. Like co-star Ewan McGregor, Portman's time in a galaxy far, far away is a foundational part of her stellar career, but it's also just one chapter of it.

As large as "Star Wars" looms on her resume, Portman is arguably just as iconic (for better or worse) as Manic Pixie Dream Girl Sam in Zach Braff's 2004 hit "Garden State." In the 2000s, she worked with directors like Wes Anderson, Wong Kar-wai, and Mike Nichols, among many others, receiving her first Academy Award nomination for Darren Aronofsky's 2010 psychological thriller "Black Swan." She won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2017 for playing Jackie Kennedy Onassis in the biopic "Jackie." In 2010, Portman joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in "Thor" as the God of Thunder's love interest Jane Foster, reprising the role in the 2013 sequel "Thor: The Dark World." Though Portman skipped the series' third installment, she is set to return in 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder." Outside of her film work, Portman is an animal rights activist, a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement, and a surprisingly good rapper.

Ghana-born British actor Hugh Quarshie appears in "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" as Captain Panaka of the Naboo royal guard, who accompanies Queen Amidala to the planet Tatooine while on the run from the Trade Federation. Panaka also gets the honor, so to speak, of introducing R2D2 to the "Star Wars" universe.

A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1981, Quarshie is another of the many well-versed British thespians who've filled out small roles in the sci-fi franchise. Arguably best known to American audiences for his roles in "Highlander," "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," and two episodes of David Tennant-era "Doctor Who," he's known to British audiences for his nearly two-decade turn on the long-running BBC medical drama "Holby City." Quarshie's surgical consultant Ric Griffin was introduced in the show's fourth season in 2001 and bowed out some 500 episodes later in 2020. Since then, he's appeared on the comedy series "Breeders" opposite Martin Freeman and in the 2021 true crime docudrama "Stephen."