Star Wars has always been able to attract the great and the good. Even before the saga was a surefire hit, the first film managed to nab respected thespian Alec Guinness to play Obi-Wan Kenobi (despite the actor’s infamous indifference towards the material).
This has only continued over the decades, as more of Hollywood’s finest have become fans of the franchise and are now clambering to appear in it. Of course, this came to a head in The Force Awakens, which contains more celebrity cameos than you can shake a lightsaber at. One of which, was Daniel Craig. He appears as the guard watching over Rey, once she has been captured and taken to Starkiller Base. In a great scene, Rey uses her burgeoning Jedi powers to influence Craig’s Stormtrooper to free her and let her escape.
Given how unexpected it was to see the James Bond star showing up in the film, many have often wondered how he got involved, and as it turns out, all he really had to do was ask.
“That Star Wars, most of them, are shot in Pinewood [Studios in England], which is where we shoot the Bond [movies],” said Craig. “Most of the crew on that were working on [Spectre], which was happening straight afterwards. I’m going to get him into trouble but Ben Dixon, who was second [assistant director], who I’ve known and worked with for a long time, is my liaison on set. And he was working on Star Wars and I had some meetings with him. And I said, can I be in it?”
After talking to the Powers That Be, Dixon came back to the actor and said, “‘We’re shooting a Stormtrooper scene this Friday, do you want to do it?’” And the rest, as they say, is history.
Looking ahead, we can expect Star Wars: The Last Jedi to include some high profile cameos as well. While Craig won’t be appearing in the film, we’ve heard that Tom Hardy, Princes Harry and William, and a few others will all show up at some point in the sequel. How they’ll factor into things remains to be seen, but we’ll find out soon enough, as Rian Johnson’s entry into the sci-fi saga blasts into theatres on December 15th.