There aren’t too many things binding the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the Star Wars galaxy. Apart from the fact that the parent companies of both these IPs co-exist under the Walt Disney umbrella. But as anyone could tell, Lucasfilm and Marvel are far more connected than just through ownership.
Now, this isn’t as simple as a Death Star Easter egg in Spider-Man or a cheesy Obi-Wan Kenobi reference from Phil Coulson. Instead, we must look at something called the celebrity paradox.
When a character’s pop culture presence breaks through into other worlds because the actor exists in our minds as someone else from a different universe, that is a celebrity paradox. And no place is this paradox louder than two of Disney’s biggest franchises in the 21st century.
The MCU Spider-Man loves Star Wars, but that’s only the celebrity paradox
Here’s something that’ll scramble your circuits faster than a Kessel Run: Star Wars exists as a fictional universe inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For starters, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is a certified Star Wars aficionado. He has a tiny General Palpatine LEGO figurine. And he and his buddy Ned have been trying to assemble that Death Star scale model for what feels like an eternity.
After all, Star Wars is not just any other franchise—it’s a culture here on our Earth-616 (and probably beyond). Even Captain America himself had to make sure he caught up with the Force to stay relevant after seven decades of cryosleep. But the deeper you dig, the more you realize that there are way too many references that you would need to mark off your list.
Remember when a young Peter Parker suggested an “old movie” tactic straight out of The Empire Strikes Back to take down a giant Ant-Man in Civil War? Then, in Far From Home, the ever-formidable Nick Fury comically explained to him that “Uneasy is the head that wears the crown” is, in fact, not an original Star Wars quote. It’s Shakespeare for those unaware.
However, as both the franchises exploded, the similarities began seeping into the cast lists of either movie. Take Natalie Portman, for example. In the MCU, she’s Jane Foster — a literal goddess, who is also the screen squeeze of Thor Odinson. But in Star Wars, she’s Padmé Amidala, mother of Luke and Leia.
So, within the MCU, is Jane Foster aware that she looks just like a Star Wars icon? Does anyone randomly stop her on the street to tell her she resembles the actress who plays the wife of Anakin in the prequel trilogy?
Samuel L. Jackson is another fan-favorite twist of fate. The MCU’s Nick Fury also played the role of Jedi Master Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels. When film critic Dan Murrell asked Anthony Russo if Windu, looking like Nick Fury, was similar to Sylvester Stallone playing all of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s roles in Last Action Hero, he received a simple response:
You’re hurting my brain.
And we couldn’t agree more. In a way, this proves one thing: the MCU is just as much a cultural mirror as it is a ‘comic book’ universe. But when fiction bleeds into itself, and characters become their own audiences, you get something unexpected. Something ironic.
The Force is strong… with these actors’ agents
This isn’t just about a couple of actors either. The sheer volume of talent shared between these two Disney-owned mega-franchises is staggering. Think about it: Harrison Ford has been Han Solo for decades. But now he goes by General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in the MCU. Similarly, Ben Mendelsohn was the villainous Orson Krennic in Rogue One before becoming the morally relatable Skrull leader Talos in Captain Marvel and Secret Invasion.
Oscar Isaac pilots an X-wing as Poe Dameron in outer space, yet grapples with dissociative identity disorder as Moon Knight. Stellan Skarsgård is now busy navigating the intricacies of the Rebellion as Luthen Rael in Andor. But once upon a time, he was guiding Thor on Planet Earth as Erik Selvig.
The list stretches across every era of Star Wars. From the prequels (Peter Serafinowicz, Richard Armitage, Ralph Brown) and sequels (Lupita Nyong’o, Benicio del Toro, Richard E. Grant) to standalone movies (Solo brought us Donald Glover as Lando and Alden Ehrenreich as Han) and even the animated shows (The Clone Wars features voices like Clancy Brown and Jon Favreau, who play Surtur and Happy Hogan in the MCU, respectively).
And somehow, in this massive Venn diagram of casting, we’ve all just accepted that Saw Gerrera can be Zuri, Mace Windu can lead the Avengers, and Maz Kanata can fall in love with T’Challa‘s Wakanda. After all, in a Disneyverse this big… It’s quite a small casting world.
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