Now that STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS has finally opened, the cast and crew are free to discuss the movie without worrying about Disney coming down on them, and director J.J. Abrams confirmed the identity of several voice cameos during a conversation with EW. I have to get into spoilery territory to explain them though, so if you haven't seen the film yet, well, you know the drill.
So you know how Rey has a vision after touching Luke Skywalker's lightsaber? A few of the voices you heard probably sounded familiar, because they were provided by Frank Oz, Ewan McGregor and the late Alec Guinness.
Abrams on why the scene was in the movie:
The idea of the voices was, we wanted the audience to feel – but not necessarily be presented right in your face — this idea that familiar, Force-strong voices were connecting with her. At least as well as they could.
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.' Here’s the cool part. 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.
Apparently the Obi-Wan Kenobi line was originally read by James Arnold Taylor, who voices Obi-Wan on The Clone Wars series, but over the weekend Taylor tweeted that he was replaced by "some guy named Ewan McSomething." Abrams went on to say that editing was used for Alec Guinness' cameo, taking dialogue of the actor saying "afraid" to make it sound like he was saying "Rey".
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.
Abrams also said Frank Oz recorded new dialogue for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS ("He was very generous to say, ‘Whatever makes the movie better, I’m happy to help out"), however they didn't end up using it for the film. Did you catch the voice cameos the first time around?