Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s newest role in the Star Wars franchise, a protagonist in Star Wars: Visions, beats his cameo in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Gordon-Levitt has appeared in every film by Rian Johnson and was guaranteed a role in his first Star Wars outing. His was, ultimately, only a cameo in which he voiced the character Slowen Lo during The Last Jedi‘s Canto Bight sequence. His first substantial Star Wars part, however, was a lead role in the Visions episode “Tatooine Rhapsody,” which told a far better story than The Last Jedi’s subplot and made better use of Gordon-Levitt’s talents.

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Gordon-Levitt’s part in The Last Jedi was Slowen Lo, an Abednedo salesman of wood sculptures who lived on Cantonica during the war between The Resistance and The First Order. During their search for the master codebreaker, Finn and Rose angered Lo by landing their ship on the Canto Bight beach, leading him to report them to the police and get them arrested. The role is only a brief cameo for Gordon-Levitt in a subplot that many viewers found forgettable.

In Star Wars: Visions, Gordon-Levitt plays Jay, a former Jedi padawan and Clone Wars veteran who escapes a traumatic and brutal battle, joining the band The Star Wavers and leaving his warrior past behind him. When one of his band members, the Hutt named Geezer, is captured by Boba Fett and sentenced to execution by Jabba the Hutt for abandoning his Hutt criminal connections, Jay decides to rescue his friend, but not as a Jedi padawan would. Opting to dazzle Jabba and a Mos Espa crowd to win his friend’s freedom, Jay and his bandmates put on their best show yet. Gordon-Levitt’s role as Jay is funny, earnest, and makes full use of his talents as an actor and singer. It’s everything that his part in The Last Jedi isn’t.

One of the many complaints that viewers had about The Last Jedi was its lack of originality and sincerity. Rather than telling an authentic and different Star Wars story, the film opted to surprise viewers in every way possible, and it sacrificed substantive storytelling as a result. Gordon-Levitt’s part in the film was a simple gag, and it resulted in Finn and Rose being jailed and finding a different codebreaker than they intended. The film has an overabundance of similar moments where its humor is less based on characterization and more geared towards self-mockery.

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Gordon-Levitt’s Visions role, by contrast, is that of a protagonist with a discernible personality and characterization. “Tatooine Rhapsody” is also a far more earnest narrative than the Canto Bight sequence of The Last Jedi, telling a story that alternates between comedy and drama far more competently. While all episodes of Visions are self-contained and therefore non-canon, “Tatooine Rhapsody” is a far more authentic and imaginative Star Wars story than The Last Jedi’s Canto Bight subplot.

Moreover, by having Gordon-Levitt play a lead role, the episode truly showcases his acting skills, providing him with meaningful dialogue and emotional moments. It also utilizes his skill as a singer, ending with an epic display of his vocal talents. With a better story, genuine emotional sincerity, and more respect for the Star Wars franchise, Gordon-Levitt’s part in Star Wars: Visions is far superior to his The Last Jedi cameo.

Key Release Dates
  • Rogue Squadron (2023)Release date: Dec 22, 2023
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David Miller
(625 Articles Published)

David Miller is a staff writer for Screen Rant, indie comic writer, and life-long lover of all things Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. He was born and raised in New York and has a degree in English from Rider University. He relates to Peter Parker maybe a little too much.

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