“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was able to sneak in cameos that even the most diehard fans may not have been aware of.
Those who haven’t seen the movie may want to steer clear of the “how and why” of the cameo, but those that have seen it know of Daisy Ridley’s Rey [SPOILER ALERT] experiencing a powerful flashback after finding Luke Skywalker’s old lightsaber. The scene includes flashes of Rey in the Cloud City halls where Luke and Darth Vader fought in “Empire Strikes Back,” a cloaked Luke mourning with R2-D2, the aftermath of a massacre from Kylo Ren and his Knights of Ren, and a young Rey being left on the planet Jakku.
The scene also includes voices from Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, with Ewan McGregor and Frank Oz respectively reprising their roles for the new lines. And thanks to clever editing, Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original trilogy and died in 2000, was able to contribute a word.
“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,'” J.J. Abrams said to Entertainment Weekly.
The editing came when producer Bryan Burk sent Abrams a recording of Guinness saying “Rey.” The line came from editing a line of the late actor 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,” Abrams said. “So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”
