If JJ Abrams says to you, ‘Do you want to be in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (opens in new tab)?’, you’re pretty much going to say ‘YEP!’. Even if ‘being in Star Wars’ involves standing around doing nothing in the background. This is also apparently true if you’re a fairly famous star because I spotted eight well-known actors making cameos in Episode 7 in some seriously bit parts. If you blinked at any point when watching this movie, you’ll definitely have missed some of these and how can you get adequately prepped for Star Wars 9 (opens in new tab) if you haven’t even seen TFA properly?!
Read more: 5 questions we have after watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens (opens in new tab)
Thomas Brodie-Sangster
Best known for: Being the kid from Love Actually, Game of Thrones, The Maze Runner
Plays: First Order Officer
The role: He’s in one scene quite near the start where he alerts a Star Destroyer commander to the unauthorised TIE Fighter take off, then swivels around in his chair. A tour de force, then.
Daniel Craig
Best known for: Being James Bond
Plays: A Stormtrooper (reportedly)
The role: Wild speculation here, but the rumour is that he plays the Stormtrooper Rey manipulates into letting her go. Simon Pegg originally let the cameo slip when he said Craig would be a Stormtrooper, but Craig promptly then told EW (opens in new tab) he wasn’t, saying: “Fucking hell! Pffft. Play an extra in another movie? Talk to Simon Pegg. He obviously knows way more than I do. He’s just jealous because he’s not in Star Wars. He’s got some issue with JJ [Abrams] I don’t know what the fuck it is. You need to talk to Simon about it.” A reaction so ridiculously over the top, it’s probably all true.
Billie Lourd
Best known for: Scream Queens, being Carrie Fisher’s daughter
Plays: Lieutenant Connix
The Role: A Resistance ranking officer who gets one line which is something like, ‘Have you seen this, General?’ to her mum – and does lots of standing about. She’s the blond one with her hair in buns; a nod to her mum’s former hairdo.
Simon Pegg
Best known for: Shaun of the Dead, Mission Impossible, Star Trek
Plays: Unkar Plutt
The role: Now bessie mates with JJ, Pegg’s role is in act 1 only, but it’s actually rather cool. Unkar Plutt is a corrupt junk dealer on Jakku who scavenger Rey trades with for food. But Unkar fancies a piece of BB-8, triggering Rey’s loyalty to the little ball of fun.
Emun Elliott
Best known for: Prometheus
Plays: Brance (a member of the Resistance)
The role: Stands next to Oscar Isaac while the Resistance has lots of stirring conversations about how to defeat the First Order. Gets lots of screen time but just one line: ‘A laser cannon?’ Look out for him in Star Wars 8 where, if he’s really lucky, he might get to stand next to Leia.
Harriet Walter
Best know for: Sense and Sensibility, numerous plays with Royal Shakespeare Company
Plays: Dr Kalonia
The role: Small but amusing. The Shakespearean actress who was made a Dame in 2011 plays the Resistance’s doctor who tends to Chewbacca’s wounds. He talks in Wookie and she cossets him with phrases like ‘Yes, it does sound very frightening’, and ‘Yes, you were very brave’.
Greg Grunberg
Best known for: Heroes
Plays: Snap Wexley
The role: He’s an X-wing pilot who gets a couple of lines (and, you know, flies an iconic spacecraft), so not a bad deal for someone only featured in the third act. Grunberg has appeared in loads of JJ projects as things like ‘Sitcom Actor’ in Super 8, ‘Step dad (voice)’ in Star Trek and ‘Seth Norris (voice) Seth Norris (scenes deleted) and Seth Norris (uncredited)’ in Lost. So… he’s earned it.
Iko Uwais
Best known for: The Raid
Plays: Razoo Quin-Fee
The role: When it was announced that master Indonesian martial artist and star of The Raid films Uwais had a role in The Force Awakens, fans were excited – expecting crazed choreographed fight scenes. Unfortunately, gang member Razoo only has a brief exchange with Han Solo in an alien language before he’s unceremoniously dispatched.