It was rumored as far back as 2013, before the seventh "Star Wars" even had a title, that Ewan McGregor would reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in "The Force Awakens." He did, of course, if only in a brief voiceover which, it turns out, was very last-minute.

"I was literally emailed by J.J. Abrams. I don’t know how he got my email, but he emailed me out of the blue weeks before the film came out," McGregor recalled to Collider. "Like really, weeks, saying, 'I really feel like you should be involved somehow. It feels right that you’re a part of it in some way, and there’s a scene where Rey is in this sort of dream land and I want to hear Alec Guinness — I want to hear Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice speaking to her.' So I replied saying, 'I’ve been waiting for the call.'

"I was happy to go in," he continued. "So I got a chance to go — I was editing a film I directed just here, and I jumped on my motorbike after the edit was finished, rode over to their lot and met J.J. for the first time and he took me in."

By last summer the persistent Obi-Wan rumors had grown to purported plans for an Obi-Wan trilogy, which probably won't happen (although, hey, there's always the possibility of a standalone film). That said, McGregor indicated last year that he'd be happy to don the Jedi robes again.