Karl Urban (born June 7, 1972) is a New Zealand actor who portrays a Steadfast First Order stormtrooper in the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, although in the movie credits, he is merely listed as providing "additional voices".
Urban is known for playing the Rohan soldier Éomer in the second and third installments of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Starfleet medical officer Leonard McCoy in the Star Trek reboot film series (which was also directed by J.J. Abrams), the Necromonger commander Vaako in the Riddick film series, and starring as Judge Dredd in Dredd and the antihero Billy Butcher in the Amazon web television series The Boys.
In 2013, when asked if he would appear in Star Wars, Urban stated that he would never do a Star Wars movie because he was recognizable from Star Trek and he felt that seeing a Star Trek actor in a Star Wars movie would be a big turn-off for the audience. However, in 2018, he stated that if he was given the opportunity, he would be glad to be part of it, commenting on the way fellow Star Trek actor Simon Pegg was completely unrecognizable in The Force Awakens and that there were ways and means to make a Star Wars appearance happen. Urban ended up portraying a stormtrooper in the 2019 film The Rise of Skywalker. According to the actor, he visited director J.J. Abrams while the latter was shooting the film and Abrams put him in a stormtrooper uniform, resulting in what the actor referred to as "a really fun day on set" for both of them.