No, no and… no. “I am not the voice of the Star Wars trailer, nor am I the hooded character with the rather cool new lightsaber,” insists Benedict Cumberbatch. But is he in the film at all? “No.”


That’s right, despite all the rumours, and all the prayers from Cumberbatch fans, the Sherlock star says he is not the man behind the stentorian tones heard at the start of the new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and that he’s not in the movie in any capacity.


The question is, do we believe him? We’re happy to accept that it’s not his voice – it starts off sounding a lot like him but quickly turns into something more akin to The Muppets’ Fozzy Bear – but as he left the interviewer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards where he was asked the question, there was definitely a cheeky little smirk on his face…