Daniel Craig did cameo as a stormtrooper in the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens – despite having denied doing so – according to Entertainment Weekly.

Reporter Chris Lee, who broke the story of the James Bond star’s strident rebuttal to a long-standing rumour started by Simon Pegg in May, says he has confirmed Craig’s role in the film and knows which stormtrooper the British actor plays.

Warning: the following contains minor spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Which one’s Daniel? ... Stormtroopers arrive for the European premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Wednesday night in London’s Leicester Square. Photograph: Karwai Tang/WireImage

Lee alleges Craig plays the First Order grunt sent to guard Daisy Ridley’s Rey in a scene on board a starship in the middle part of Abrams’ film. The segue is used to show the audience the young scavenger’s nascent Force powers: she tells the stormtrooper: “You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.” Craig (allegedly) initially replies: “I’ll tighten those restraints, scavenger scum,” but after Ridley focuses her Jedi skills and repeats the treaty, eventually responds: “I’ll remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open”, before doing just that.

The scene is one of the standout comedy moments in The Force Awakens, recalling Alec Guinness’s Jedi mind tricks as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original 1977 Star Wars and those of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in 1983’s Return of the Jedi.

When the Bond actor was asked about his rumoured cameo in July, Craig responded: “Why would I ever bother doing something like that? Fucking hell! Pffft. Play an extra in another movie.” Lee alleges now that the British actor lied to him, but it appears, rather, that a certain style of British humour may have been in play.

For the record, Pegg (who also has a cameo in The Force Awakens, reportedly as a troll-like Jakku bigwig) told the Sun: “I wasn’t a stormtrooper. Daniel Craig, he was a stormtrooper,” in May, before adding: “I shouldn’t have said that.”

For those still wondering how the alleged Craig cameo might have come about, Spectre and The Force Awakens were filming at British studio Pinewood during the same period last year, so 007 would have had just a short walk from one set to another.

