By: Dominic Jones
Warning: This Story Contains Spoilers from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If you haven't seen the film yet, stop reading now!
We heard reports this weekend that Ewan McGregor had reprised his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it turns out Obi-Wan wasn't the only classic Jedi with lines in the film. JJ Abrams revealed to Entertainment Weekly that, not only did McGregor reprise his role, but Frank Oz also came back to record new Yoda dialogue! Both can be heard when Rey experiences a Force vision after picking up Luke's old lightsaber in Maz Kanata's basement.
First Abrams confirmed what we heard in the sequence, telling EW,
"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'"
About working with McGregor, Abrams said,
“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.”
About working with Oz, Abrams told
EW,
“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! He was very generous to say, ‘Whatever makes the movie better, I’m
happy to help out.”
Abrams also revealed that through some audio editing, they were also able to get Sir Alec Guiness' voice saying "Rey" during that sequence. Abrams described his reaction when producer Bryan Burk first brought the audio to him, saying,
“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."
Abrams also explained why all these voices can be heard in the sequence, saying,
"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."
The more I learn about this sequence, the cooler it gets. I love that they were able to bring back Oz and McGregor to do new dialogue and the fact that they were able to make it so Alec Guinness says "Rey" in the sequence is fantastic. It does a really nice job of tying Rey' story in with what came before.
