If you were to have three guesses as to which major Hollywood figure might be in line for an appearance in the new Star Wars movie, we can be pretty sure Martin Scorsese probably wouldn't be one of them.
But the legendary director of Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and many, many other all-time big screen classics does have a role in Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu – albeit only a voice one.
Scorsese plays an Ardennian shopkeeper named Hugo – presumably a deliberate nod to his 2011 film of that title – and writer/director Jon Favreau exclusively admitted to Radio Times that it was a "surprise" that he agreed to take on the role.
"I wrote this character, and we made a wish list of who we might want to go out to as voice talent," he explained in an interview ahead of release.
"Now, it's easier to get somebody to commit to being a part of something when you're not going to be on set for four months [and] thankfully [former LucasFilm president] Kathy Kennedy had a relationship with him... a long-standing friendship."
And so Kennedy gave Scorsese a call, with the director almost immediately agreeing to the role. Soon, Favreau was recording him in a studio, as well as filming him for use as an animation and character design reference.
"'It was a dream," Favreau recalled. "He's a hero of mine creatively. If you look at any of my films, my earlier independent films, you can see clearly I was brought up on... he was sort of a point of inspiration for me from the beginning."
Scorsese isn't the only icon of American cinema to appear in the film, with Alien legend Sigourney Weaver also joining the franchise for the first time as Mando's boss Colonel Ward.
Favreau explained that Weaver was very "open" to taking on the part, and that the character had been an especially important one for him and LucasFilm president Dave Filoni.
"Here's a character that very well could have been a contemporary of Princess Leia and that whole generation of rebel warriors," he explained.
"She hits the screen and all of a sudden her reputation is subconsciously brought to mind, and as you see her as a commanding officer of this base... she's definitely an authority figure.
He continued: "You completely accept it, because you know that she's not just stepping on the screen as this character, she's also.... everything else she's ever played is in the back of your mind."
View Green Video on the source websiteThe Mandalorian & Grogu is the first big screen Star Wars project since The Rise of Skywalker back in 2019, but fans haven't exactly been starved for content in the intervening seven years.
There have been a whole host of streaming shows on Disney+ – including three seasons of The Mandalorian – and so perhaps there's a feeling in some quarters that it's harder than ever for a Star Wars project to really stand out.
But when we put that question to Favreau, he wasn't so convinced.
"I think there's a lot going on now, not just in Star Wars, but everywhere there's a lot of stories being told," he said.
"I know that when I watch other stories that take place in another world... when I watch the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it does not take away or change how I feel about House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones.
"I think that if a world is well defined, there's lots of different stories. I think people seek out what they like in it.
"Certainly in Star Wars, recently, there's different tones, different time periods, and people are drawn to different things – generally depending on how old they are and what their entree into Star Wars was."
The Mandalorian & Grogu is coming to cinemas on 22 May.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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