Every Actor Who's Been In Both Star Trek And Star Wars

The rivalry is as old as the hills: Is "Star Trek" superior to "Star Wars" or vice versa? While one is a TV show that began in the mid-1960s, and the other is a film series that didn't start until after "Trek" had been off the air for eight year, a schism arose in fandom, pitting the two against one another — perhaps inspired by nothing more than their shared genre, mutual popularity, and similar titles. 

One can argue whether or not this rivalry is warranted at all (the arguments are as old as the rivalry; one is sci-fi, the other sci-fantasy. One is speculative fiction about the future, the other is nostalgia for the distant past, etc.), but the rivalry has certainly — often playfully — been in place for decades, creating something of a mental divide between the two. There will be no interaction between the actors and creatives working on the two projects. George Lucas simply cannot direct an episode of "Star Trek," and William Shatner is forbidden from approaching "Star Wars." 

Imagine the cognitive dissonance, then, created by the announcement of J.J. Abrams being hired to direct "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in 2014 ... only a few years after completing "Star Trek Into Darkness." There's no logical way to argue that this felt like an injustice, but for many it felt like an ineffable line had been crossed. Abrams was violating the unwritten rule that "Trek" and "Wars" remain ever separated. 

Of course, for those paying attention, multiple actors had been crossing that line for years. Here are all the actors who have appeared in both the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" franchises.

Brent Spiner is one of the more prolific "Star Trek" actors, having played Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but also different models of Data (his evil twin Lore, his prototype B-4) as well as Data's creator, Dr. Noonien Soong. Thanks to "Star Trek: Enterprise" and "Star Trek: Picard," Spiner has played various ancestors and descendants of Soong as well. Spiner has been a mite ambivalent about "Star Trek" over the years: loving that he got to play such an excellent character, but sometimes bristling at being shouldered with it as well. 

In the animated TV series "Star Wars Rebels," Spiner played a politician in exile named Gall Trayvis: a noble senator who initially spoke out against the evils of the rising Empire ... until it was revealed he was an Imperial spy who took a great deal of glee in the suffering of the Rebels. Like all good villains, he was also a coward. 

Perhaps because "Star Trek" (at least ostensibly) takes place in a morally complex universe, largely absent of "heroes" and "villains" in the archetypal sense, perhaps it was appealing for a "Trek" actor to let loose and be cartoonishly evil. Both Takei and Spiner played villains in the "Star Wars" universe, which has to be enjoyable after playing tied-up, uniform-wearing diplomats.

Simon Pegg's appearance in both "Star Trek" (2009) and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" probably came about because director Abrams liked working with the actor. Stepping into the role originated by James Doohan in 1966, Pegg played the Kelvin timeline's iteration of Scotty, the acerbic and peeved engineer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, bringing to the role a wry sense of humor along with some comedic exasperation. Pegg, famously a sci-fi nerd, was happy to play the role and would go on to co-write "Star Trek Beyond." 

Appearing only briefly in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Pegg was cast as a junk trader named Unkar Plutt who ends up selling out the character of Rey to the First Order. Pegg voiced the character, but it was largely a CGI creation based on his movements. This is another case of an actor starting on "Trek" as a noble character, then moving to "Wars" as a wicked one.

And speaking of "The Star Wars Holiday Special," the Steve Binder-directed 1978 TV movie, and direct canonical sequel to the hit film a year previous, remains one of the most grating and terrible pieces of trash in TV history. In it, Chewbacca the Wookiee — essentially a space sasquatch — must return home to his family of sasquatches in time for Life Day, the closest "Star Wars" analogue to Christmas. 

Chewbacca's son is a creature named Lumpy (the "Star Wars" tie-in novel "Aftermath: Empire's End" revealed that his full name is Lumpawaroo) who liked to watch holographic Cirque du Soleil performances and bad TV shows. Lumpy was played by actress Patty Maloney, perhaps best known for the Sid and Marty Krofft series "Far Out Space Nuts." Lumpy, however, only spoke the Wookiee language, so Maloney's voice was not used. 

Maloney would go on to star in the best episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," called "The Thaw." In it, the Voyager crew had to project their consciousnesses into a computer simulation where a manifestation of fear (played by Michael McKean) had taken over the world with his army of scary carnival performers. Maloney was one of the members of Fear's retinue. 

One could perhaps argue that both of Maloney's "Trek" and "Wars" roles are equally terrifying. 

Another victim of Lucasfilm's tinkering with the "Star Wars" movies after the fact was actor Jason Wingreen, who played the voice of the mysterious, helmeted bounty hunter Boba Fett in "The Star Wars Holiday Special," in "The Empire Strikes Back, " and in "Return of the Jedi." In the prequel films that followed, the character was recast with actor Temuera Morrison, who would replace Wingreen's vocals in 2004 — but Wingreen can still lay claim to the character. 

Prior to "Star Wars," however, Wingreen's face can be seen in the original series "Star Trek" episode "The Empath," a third-season cheapie wherein Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are tortured by aliens on an avant-garde theater set. Wingreen played a doctor who was trapped in a tube-like prison. Not a huge role and, according to an interview in StarTrek.com, one he didn't even remember shooting, but a "Trek" role nonetheless. 

Boba Fett's voice was also once provided by actor Ed Begley, Jr. in a (relatively obscure) 1996 audio adaptation of "Return of the Jedi," a piece of media for deep-cut Starwoids. Begley, as fans of "Star Trek: Voyager" know, also played a Bill Gates-like supervillain in a two-part time travel episode called "Future's End" wherein a computer impresario was stealing 29th-century technology to invent dial-up internet. Yes, that is real. Both villains, I suppose, but Bill Gates and Boba Fett are very, very different characters. Only one, for instance, has a charity foundation. 

Who could forget "Star Trek: Nemesis?" As it turns out, most people. Released in 2002, it was one of the least successful "Trek" movies, and indicated that the franchise was, after a glorious 15-year heyday, finally on the wane. 

"Nemesis" was about a clone of Picard's (played by Tom Hardy) who instigates a revolution of Remans against their oppressors, the Romulans. The Remans have an orc-like appearance and can read minds through touch. Picard's clone had an unnamed right-hand henchman Reman viceroy, played by the glorious Ron Perlman. Perlman is no stranger to the makeup chair, having played animals and creatures in many iterations (he was in the "Beauty and the Beast" TV series, "The Island of Dr. Moreau," and he was Hellboy), so appearing as an alien orc was right in his wheelhouse.

In "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," Perlman voiced a character named Gha Nachkt, a big-mouthed goblin creature of the Trandoshan species (thank you Wookieepedia). Gha Nachkt was a feckless trader who found R2-D2 on a derelict Rebel vessel, hid the droid from Anakin Skywalker, and tried to con General Grievous out of some cash. Gha was murdered for his trouble. Perlman typically plays strong or imposing characters, so it's a delight to see him play someone a little more sniveling.

In the sixth season episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," called "True Q," Olivia D'Abo played a Starfleet intern who is on board to acquire some field experience on a real starship. The omnipotent prankster Q (John de Lancie) then appears to her and tells her that, while she was raised as a human, she's actually a Q herself and is now ready to join the ranks of enlightened trickster gods. As one might, she is reluctant to give up being a human at the drop of a hat and tests out her godlike powers first; she cheats on tests and tries to kidnap her crush, Cmdr. Riker. D'Abo is sweet in the role, playing an inexperienced youngster on a show full of stuffy adults. 

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" gave many Trek actors a chance to infiltrate "the other side," and D'Abo appeared on the show in 2008 playing Luminara Unduli, a background Jedi character previously played by Mary Oyaya in "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones." Luminara was known for her skill as a swordfighter and the strength of her mind powers. Perhaps not too much a stretch from playing a Q. The main difference being one is an inexperienced god, the other an experienced mortal. There's a metaphor somewhere in there about meeting in the middle. 

George Coe played a notable role in one of the better episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," titled "First Contact" (not to be confused with the feature film). In the episode, Cmdr. Riker had disguised himself and infiltrated a species that was on the cusp of inventing warp drive (an event in "Star Trek" that allows starship-controlling species to make contact). Riker gets found out, however, and Starfleet's first contact doesn't go so well. Coe plays the president of the planet in question, and he has some legitimate, intelligent concerns when he finds out about the aliens on his homeworld. The discussions he has with Picard are pure "Trek." 

Coe was also one of the many actors who snuck in the back door of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," playing a spindly sloth-like alien named Tee Watt Kaa. Although a "Star Wars" character, Tee Watt Kaa was — in "Trek" tradition — a pacifist who refused to fight. This becomes difficult when an evil Neimoidian — OMG, is that Lok Durd played by George Takei? — invades his village. By the end of the episode, Lok Durd is fought off, but Tee Watt Kaa understood that conquering came at a price. 

Both roles question the fundamental ideas behind their respective franchises. One might wonder if Coe had considered that. 

If you need a bearded engineer type to look sternly over the planned actions of a deathly serious upcoming skirmish, Greg Grunberg is your guy. Grunberg started his career with the stellar straight-to-video horror/smut film "Witchcraft V: Dance with the Devil," though he may be better known for his role as psychic cop Matt Parkman in "Heroes." He's also worked with J.J. Abrams on a number of occasions, including his regular role in the TV series "Felicity" and his brief role as an ill-fated pilot in "Lost."

Being in Abrams' camp is likely what led to Grunberg's roles in both his "Star Trek" and his "Star Wars" movies In "The Force Awakens," "The Last Jedi," and "The Rise of Skywalker," Grunberg played a character named Temmin "Snap" Wexley, a serious engineer of some kind. In Abrams' "Star Trek," Grunberg played the voice of James T. Kirk's stepfather. The original actor, Brad William Henke, was cut from the film, and Abrams brought in Grunberg to fill in Henke's lines in post-production. 

It counts! It counts!