After Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the most in-demand actors in the world. And for a brief moment, he nearly became Anakin Skywalker.
This isn’t just a fan theory or casting rumor. DiCaprio himself confirmed that he met with George Lucas to talk about playing the young Jedi who would eventually fall and become Darth Vader. At the time, Lucas was preparing Attack of the Clones and looking for someone who could carry the weight of the prequels—and the entire legacy of Star Wars.
DiCaprio Met George Lucas—and Then Walked Away
This wasn’t a case of George Lucas rejecting Leonardo DiCaprio. It was the other way around.
In later interviews, Leonardo DiCaprio confirmed that he did meet with George Lucas to talk about playing Anakin Skywalker. At the time, Lucas was deep into casting for Attack of the Clones, and DiCaprio—fresh off Titanic—was very much on the radar.
But DiCaprio didn’t see it as the right move.
In an interview with ShortList, the exchange went like this:
Were you in talks to play Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels?
“I did have a meeting with George Lucas about that as well, yes.”
What happened?
“Same scenario.” (laughs)
He wanted you, but you didn’t fancy it?
“Um, right. Exactly.”
Why?
“Again, just didn’t feel ready to take that dive. At that point.”
Looking back, he explained that while the meeting happened, he didn’t feel ready to commit to a role that large or to step into a franchise that would define the next decade of his career. He wasn’t questioning the importance of Star Wars—he was questioning his own timing. Jumping straight from Titanic into another massive pop‑culture role felt like too much, too fast.
That decision mattered. Because once DiCaprio passed, Lucas’s casting process shifted. The search moved away from established megastars and toward someone younger, less famous, and more malleable—an actor who could grow into Anakin rather than arrive fully formed.
And that’s where everything changed.
Even Hayden Thought He’d Lose the Role of Anakin to DiCaprio
When Hayden Christensen first auditioned for Attack of the Clones, he didn’t think he had a real shot.
He knew the casting search had gone wide—and that much bigger names were in the mix. In an interview with Empire, Christensen recalled:
“I had heard that they’d met with Leonardo and a bunch of other actors. That just confirmed my thought that the role would go to another actor. Through the entire auditioning process I had told myself, from day one, that I wasn’t going to get the part. It just wasn’t a possibility. And I think that probably helped me a lot, because it just freed me up in a lot of ways. And so it really came as a surprise to me when I got the part.”
At the time, Christensen was a working actor with a few credits but no blockbuster recognition. DiCaprio, by contrast, had already become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. From Hayden’s perspective, it seemed obvious who would get the part.
But once he got the part, he understood the weight of what Lucas was asking him to do. In that same interview, he explained:
“The scope of the opportunity—the enormity of it all—was exciting to me. It was obviously a little daunting too, but there’s a saying: ‘Pressure is privilege.’ I just felt very lucky to have it. I was really thrilled that I was gonna get to express George’s mapping out of how someone goes from good to bad.”