Making the promo rounds in anticipation of No Time To Die, Daniel Craig shared a new story about one of his less notable roles: a cameo in JJ Abram’s The Force Awakens.
News of the cameo was met with surprise in 2015 as Craig never showed his face. Rather, he plays a small role as a stormtrooper duped by the force. Craig keeps watch over Rey, who’s been captured and detained by the First Order. Having realized her nascent connection to the force, Rey attempts to do something out of a story (to her) and use a mind trick like the Jedi of legend could. It doesn’t go well at first, but she steels herself and overcomes the trooper’s will. Craig releases her and offhandedly drops his weapon for Rey to escape.
During an interview with BBC Radio 1 yesterday, Craig told host Ali Plumb how he came to dawn the First Order’s stormtrooper armor thanks to his time playing Bond. “I don’t think I could’ve done that if I hadn’t been James Bond,” Craig told Plumb, “having the chutzpah to do that is because I’m James Bond.”
He had also made some important connections:
“I asked the second AD [assistant director] on Star Wars, who’s our second AD, a lovely guy called Ben Dixon. And I said, ‘Ben, come on. Come on. Can we get me in? I can be a stormtrooper. He went and asked JJ [and] JJ was like, ‘Get him in’. And he gave me a scene! I just thought I was just going to stand at the back holding a gun. I would’ve been happy with that but he actually gave me a scene.”
Craig was only the first in a long line of celebrity cameos behind the helmet in the sequel trilogy. Ed Sheeran, Karl Urban, and Michael Giacchino all dawned the white (or red) armor, while Tom Hardy, Prince William and Prince Harry cameoed in what became deleted scenes.
It’s not just the dark side, either. The director of Rogue One, Gareth Edwards played a resistance fighter in The Last Jedi. Ellie Goulding, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and more would play parts for the light side throughout the trilogy.
No Time To Die is Craig’s final reprisal as Bond. It’s out on October 8th in the US.