Kelly Marie Tran stops by Oh My Disney (with BB-8!) and Fangirling to talk shooting The Last Jedi, ships, and working with John Boyega and Benicio del Toro.
Time for another episode of Unboxing Star Wars with Baby Jawa, Yowie, and me! Yowie and I discuss the Star Wars Rebels episode ‘Shroud of Darkness’ and then review two recent books: The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story by Elizabeth Schaefer, from Disney-Lucasfilm Press, and Pablo Hidalgo’s The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, from DK Publishing. Meanwhile, Baby Jawa does baby things.
Quick reviews
→ The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary – An enjoyable must-have guide for all Star Wars fans!
→ The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story – A great retelling of TFA from Rey’s point of view. Intended for young readers, but can be enjoyed by any fan. Love that artwork by Brian Rood!
→ ‘Shroud of Darkness’ – Thumbs-up! Force visions reveal some interesting secrets for our characters, and provide for some cool scenes and the return of several legendary SW voices.
No, you weren’t hearing things: Those were the voices of Ewan MacGregor, Frank Oz and Alec Guinness that we heard during Rey’s vision in The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
Ewan McGregor came in to record his part (after cartoon counterpart James Arnold Taylor took a shot at it,) as did Frank Oz. Guinness’ “Rey” was isolated from existing audio:
As they worked on editing the dream sequence, Bryan Burk, a longtime Bad Robot collaborator and one of the producers of the film, surprised Abrams one day with the gift of a single word: Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice saying the name “Rey …”
“I said, ‘That’s cool, is that the thing from Ewan McGregor?’” Abrams recalled. “He said ‘No, we took a line from Alec Guinness saying ‘Afraid.’”
Not only that, but the lilt in his voice from that truncated word happened to fit exactly what Abrams had in mind. “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,” Abrams says. “So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”
Taylor and several other familiar voices can still be heard in various parts around the film – but I’ll leave the specific IDing to those more well-versed in the cartoons than I.
Lucasfilm has released two clips from ‘Path of the Jedi,’ which will air on Disney XD next Monday, or is online to verified viewers now on WATCHDisneyXD.com. The episode features Frank Oz as Yoda, who you can hear in the second clip:
Yoda, as voiced by Frank Oz, to appear on Rebels, TV Guide reveals today. Alrightly then. There won’t be a physical appearance, but you’ll hear his voice in the show’s next episode:
“I felt personally to keep Yoda as this disembodied thing it would confuse the audience less,” says executive producer Dave Filoni, who also directed the installment. “I didn’t want you to think Yoda could be teleporting from planet to planet.”
Rebels returns from hiatus with ‘Path of the Jedi’ on January 5th.
Though he hasn’t heard anything from Lucasfilm, Frank Oz would be willing to return to voice Yoda, according to Hero Complex. But don’t expect another puppet version:
“I think it depends on the story, but I think at this point you can’t go back to the puppet,” he said. “The reason George [Lucas] did the CGI, which I supported, was that he wanted to tell a story that would have been hampered by the physical limitations of the puppet.”
However, remember that while it’s been confirmed that there are spin-off plans in the works, the Yoda film is still just a rumor.
