3 Big Unexpected Voice Cameos Revealed in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
We recently learned which stormtrooper Daniel Craig suited up as in Star Wars: The Force Awaken, but there are even more intriguing cameos that you may have missed.
Minor SPOILERS Ahead:
During the vision sequence when Rey comes in contact with Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, we hear several whispering voices, including Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Well, James Arnold Taylor, who provides the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Clone Wars was originally brought in to provide the voice of Obi-Wan in the sequence where you hear the character's voice say “Rey.” Turn’s out J.J. Abrams didn’t end up using his voice in the final product that we all saw. His voice was replaced by Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness.
The news was revealed by Taylor himself when he was asked about it on Twitter. You can read those tweets below, then read quotes from Abrams confirming that the voices of McGregor, Guinness, and Frank Oz were all included in the film:
@maxreborules it was me originally but they replaced me with some guy named Ewan McSomething... 😜
— James Arnold Taylor (@JATactor) December 19, 2015@t_betts94 yes, it was me originally but they replaced my version with Ewan. I guess if I'm gonna be replaced it should be him! 😀
— James Arnold Taylor (@JATactor) December 19, 2015Here's what Abrams said about McGregor's involvement in the film, in an interview with EW:
“We asked Ewan McGregor to come in and do the line. And he was awesome and we were very grateful. He was incredibly sweet and handsome, and all that stuff. Then he rode off on his motorcycle. Literally the coolest voice over actor ever.”
The director went on to reveal how Guinness’ voice ended up being used. He explained that Bryan Burk, one of the executives at Bad Robot, surprised him with the voice, and this is how it all went down after Burk had him listen to it:
“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.”
Even though it wasn’t much, I love that McGregor came back for this. But there’s always the possibility that there could be more to his character's involvement in future films. We know that Lucasfilm is looking at doing an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone film that McGregor could reprise his role in. It’s also pretty damn awesome that they were able to include Guinness!
The other big voice cameo was Frank Oz reprising his role as Yoda, which is another voice heard in the vision sequence. Abrams said:
“He was incredibly generous and came in to Bad Robot, where we had a recording area, and he was doing Yoda, saying a number of lines we gave to him. This whole experience has been one outrageous moment after another. Just watching Frank Oz, you look at him and talk to him and his voice is very deep. I don’t know why I would have thought he sounded like Miss Piggy!”
The addition of these voices just gives us more insight into how Abrams wanted to honor to the original films in the saga and the people who were involved with them. I think it's something the fans appreciate as well.
