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Star Wars: James Bond Actor Daniel Craig Looks Back on Stormtrooper Cameo in Episode VII


Credit: Lucasfilm

It's common knowledge amongst avid fans of the Star Wars franchise that James Bond actor Daniel Craig played a minor role in 2015's The Force Awakens as the Stormtrooper who was on the receiving end of Rey's Jedi mind trick, freeing her from captivity on the Starkiller Base. Of course, during the time, not a lot of people were aware of the cameo but when Craig's mini involvement in the Star Wars franchise was revealed, he quickly became an iconic Stormtrooper.


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Credit: lucasfilm

Despite his A-list status, Craig didn't mind playing an extra in the sequel trilogy. In fact, he was over the moon with his involvement, so much so that he even wanted to be portrayed as the typical clumsy Stormtrooper. During a conversation with Edith Bowman at a BAFTA retrospective centered on his career (via The Daily Express), the English actor looked back on his brief involvement in a galaxy far, far away.

Opening up about how he got the small part, Craig recalled: "I think we were doing Spectre, and all of our crew were on Star Wars. Ben Dixon, who was our seconding (Second Assistant Director), a great lovely man Ben Dixon, he was on seconding and I kind of went to, I had to go into Pinewood to, I don't know what I had to go to Pinewood for, to do some fitting or something. And I said to Ben, I said, ‘part for me?". And he was like, ‘are you serious?' I was like, ‘yeah.' And he went, ‘I'll go ask J.J.' And he came back and said, ‘yeah.'"

The No Time To Die star added: "Thing was, I thought ‘background stormtrooper.' I mean, I wanted to do that guy that bumps his head in the original one, you know that person who drops his lightsaber or something. Then I was in a whole f***ing scene, I was like, ‘OK!' And we did the scene and then I just thought they'll loop me, they'll put another voice on it, you know. Then I had to spend like three hours with JJ on a looping session like doing all the dialogues. Like, ‘really, you want me to do this? Get someone else to do this!'"

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Now that Craig's time in the James Bond franchise is pretty much over, would it be too much to ask to see him turn up in another huge franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe of the Star Wars franchise? I guess we'll just have to wait and see what's next for him but I believe now's the perfect time for him to make the jump.

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