Star Wars: The Bad Batch Star Reveals They Originally Auditioned for The Last Jedi

In the years since Disney purchased Lucasfilm, the Star Wars franchise has expanded in a massive way and required a number of performers to get involved in various projects, with actor Michelle Ang confirming that, before securing the role of Omega in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, she auditioned for a role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. While Ang didn’t confirm the role she auditioned for, with The Last Jedi introducing audiences to both Paige and Rose Tico, it would seem likely that she was attempting to score the role of one of the sisters who were part of the Resistance.

“This is really moving for me to be part of Star Wars,” Ang confirmed to StarWars.com about securing the role after her The Last Jedi audition. “The feeling of losing out to that was really huge and quite heartbreaking. So it’s quite nice it have it come full circle and still get to play with all of you.”

While Ang didn’t reveal the part she went out for on The Last Jedi, even the attempt to score the part of Omega was shrouded in secrecy.

“Obviously, when I auditioned for the role I did not know that it was part of the Star Wars world or the Lucasfilm family or any of that,” Ang recalled. “The character had this real innocence and naivety but also the core of someone who was strong in her internal compass and had morality. What resonated was this push and pull for someone who’s experienced nothing and yet wants to stand for everything.”

Ang isn’t the only one who was kept in the dark about a Star Wars opportunity, with Kelly Marie Tran recently detailing how secret her own Star Wars audition for Rose Tico was.

“I remember getting an email, just like you normally would for an audition, but the email said the project was ‘The Untitled Rian Johnson Project,’ which after a little bit of light Googling, it was pretty clear that he was doing Episode VIII,” Tran explained to Collider last month. “We didn’t get sides to prepare. They wouldn’t even let you have them. So we would get to the audition and then you’d be given these sides that were printed on red paper so that you wouldn’t take them with you.”

She continued, “It was essentially a cold read, was the first audition. And I remember the character description said, ’20s, female, character-y,’ and that was it. You didn’t really know anything about it. So yeah, it was wild. I will say, the best thing that I did was probably just try as much as possible to be present in the moment and pay attention to what the scene was about, as opposed to trying to act a genre or play to a specific universe if that makes sense. There were two scenes and one of them was a scene between myself and John Boyega, Finn. It’s the casino scene where we’re looking for the Master Codebreaker and then the sort of monologue scene where Rose is talking about wanting to put her fist through this lousy, beautiful town.”

New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch debut on Disney+ on Fridays.

Would you have liked to see Ang in Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!