10 Actors Who Made Sure They Weren't Seen In Star Wars

There are a few movie franchises that just about every actor, no matter how prestigious and celebrated they might be, wants to appear in.

And right at the top of the pack, even above the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is Star Wars - an IP that, for almost an entire half-century, has dazzled audiences young and old with memories they won't ever forget.

But it's also fair to say that many actors are simply too famous or recognisable to play a major role in Star Wars, because their sheer presence will ultimately just create a significant distraction from whatever else is happening in the movie.

And so, filmmakers have playfully skirted around this by having even some of the biggest A-list actors on the planet show up in Star Wars while hidden in plain sight, ensuring they couldn't be seen.

Perhaps the actors in question donned elaborate disguises, manipulated their voices either digitally or otherwise, or played a unique technical role nobody would've ever guessed.

Whatever the method, these actors were all positively unrecognisable in these Star Wars roles, ensuring audiences only found out in retrospect...

In recent years in particular, Star Wars has had a habit of placing A-list actors underneath Stormtrooper helmets in order to grant them sneaky cameo appearances.

After all, it's an easy way to let a beloved actor appear in the movie without distracting the audience through their sheer presence alone, so why the hell not?

And that's absolutely what happened with Daniel Craig in The Force Awakens. He appears briefly later in the movie as a Stormtrooper who is Jedi mind-tricked by Rey (Daisy Ridley) into releasing her restraints and dropping his weapon.

But while Craig's face categorically cannot be seen, he does indeed have a few speaking lines, as he calls Rey "scavenger scum," before vocally complying with her commands.

Even so, the vocal distortion of the helmet makes it tough to make out Craig's voice unless you really know what he sounds like, ensuring this passed almost everybody by - on a first sit, at least.

As for how Craig wrangled the role? He was at Pinewood Studios for a costume fitting while The Force Awaken was shooting, and asked second assistant director Ben Dixon - who Craig worked with on Spectre - to ask J.J. Abrams for a cameo role.

Abrams complied, at which point Craig was shocked to find out he was playing a Stormtrooper in a major scene, and even had to spend a few hours recording dialogue before the film's release.