Courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.
One Stormtrooper in particular had a license to kill.
Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
There are some star cameos you’ll know immediately in the new Star Warsmovie—J.J. Abrams’s old pal Greg Grunberg shows up as a resistance pilot,Max von Sydow plays a small but pivotal role in the film’s opening scene, and even though his face isn’t showing, many fans have spotted Simon Pegg as an unctuous junk dealer on the desert planet of Jakku. But there’s one big BIG cameo that’s much harder to spot—and has only been revealed thanks to some loose-lipped insiders.
According to Entertainment Weekly , the rumors were true: Daniel Craig really did show up as a Stormtrooper, as revealed by none other than Simon Pegg earlier this year. And it’s not like you would just see him walk by in the armor and never notice him—Craig’s Stormtrooper does have lines, and features in one of the film’s most pivotal, and funniest, scenes. If you haven’t seen the film yet you really shouldn’t know about it ahead of time, so here’s a double extra spoiler warning first.
OK, we good? So Daniel Craig turns out to be the Stormtrooper at the center of Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) very first Jedi mind trick. Held captive on Kylo Ren’s base, she instructs the Stormtrooper guarding her to “remove these restraints and leave the door open.” The Stormtrooper fights back at first, offering to tighten the restraints on the “scavenger scum,” but eventually relents. It’s a trick worthy of Obi-Wan Kenobi, except Rey has never met Obi-Wan and has no Jedi training at all; that’s how strong the Force is with her, it seems.
I’ve seen The Force Awakens twice now and never thought for a second either time that the voice under the Stormtrooper armor was familiar—like all helmeted voices in the Star Warsit’s heavily filtered, and could really be any British accent. But knowing that 007 was bested by a classic Jedi mind trick just adds an extra layer of delight to the scene, don’t you think?
