Ewan McGregor’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens cameo role revealed

The actor was among a trio of Star Wars veterans who lent their voices to the new film
Making a return: Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
Emma Powell21 December 2015
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

*Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoiler alert*

Ewan McGregor’s cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been revealed.

McGregor reprised his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi from the prequels for a voice cameo in the seventh installment in the epic franchise.

Director J. J. Abrams confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that he not only employed the three original members – Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill – but also the voices of veterans McGregor, Frank Oz (Yoda) and the late Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens World Premiere

1/27

"The idea of the voices was, we wanted the audience to feel – but not necessarily be presented right in your face – this idea that familiar, Force-strong voices were connecting with her," he told the publication. "At least as well as they could.

"You do hear a little bit of Yoda. You hear Luke yelling out, 'Nooo!' from that moment in Empire. And you hear Obi-Wan at the end say, 'Rey... these are your first steps’.”

McGregor's voice can be heard during a scene in which Daisy Ridley's character Rey touches Luke Skywalkwer's lightsaber, after discovering it in Maz Kanata's castle, and has a dream-like flashback where she hears the voices belonging to McGregor, Oz and Guinness.

McGregor is heard whispering "Rey" in the flashback which also includes a cut up of Guinness' voice saying "afraid" from the original trilogy.

Speaking about producer Bryan Burk's decision to include Guinness, Abrams said: "I said, 'That's cool, is that the thing from Ewan McGregor?' He said 'No, we took a line from Alec Guinness saying 'Afraid'.

“They cut it, and you hear the performance – he’s saying it the way I would have begged Alec Guinness to have said it. It is so crazy perfect. So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”

Oz recorded new vocals for Yoda, but Abrams revealed that they used pre-existing dialogue for the final cut.

Other stars with secret roles are Simon Pegg who lends his voice to a cameo, and Daniel Craig whose role as a Stormtrooper was uncovered ahead of the film's release.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in cinemas now.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in