Star Wars: The Force Awakens harkens back to the prior films on several occasions, and it's now been revealed that director J.J. Abrams went so far as to seek out contributions from some notable series alums beyond Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill and the other obvious returns, among them Ewan McGregor and Frank Oz.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers below.In one particular scene with Rey (Daisy Ridley), after she picks up a certain lightsaber for the first time, the familiar voices of Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi can be heard among the purposely jumbled images and sounds Rey is experiencing, and in an interview with EW , Abrams revealed how that scene was created, confirming that Ewan McGregor, Frank Oz and even the late Alec Guinness are all included in the film."The idea of the voices was, we wanted the audience to feel – but not necessarily be presented right in your face — this idea that familiar, Force-strong voices were connecting with her. At least as well as they could," Abrams explained. "You do hear a little bit of Yoda. You hear Luke yelling out, 'Nooo!' from that moment in Empire. And you hear Obi-Wan at the end say, 'Rey... these are your first steps.''"Interestingly enough, while McGregor recorded that Obi-Wan line specifically for The Force Awakens, the first word, when Obi-Wan says the name "Rey," was actually pulled from a prior line by Guinness from the original Star Wars trilogy. In order to get the snippet, they edited a line of Guinness' that included the word "Afraid," Abrams revealed.Abrams said that when Force Awakens producer Bryan Burk first played him Obi-Wan saying "Rey," he thought it was McGregor initially and was thrilled when he was told it was Guinness, telling EW, “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.”The director also shared what he thought was the "cool part" of the process in working with Obi-Wan actor McGregor, saying, "He was awesome... incredibly sweet and handsome, and all that stuff. Then he rode off on his motorcycle. Literally the coolest voice over actor ever."While Yoda voice actor and puppeteer Frank Oz also traveled to Bad Robot to record new lines for The Force Awakens, Abrams said the studio ended up using pre-existing content instead. "He was very generous to say, 'Whatever makes the movie better, I’m happy to help out,'" Abrams said. [Upon watching the film, IGN editors have noted you hear part of Yoda's Empire Strikes Back line, "Its energy surrounds us and binds us," in the scene with Rey and the lightsaber.]What did you think of Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Did you like all the callbacks to the prior films? Let us know in in the comments and then be sure to watch our Force Awakens spoilercast While you're at it, you can head over to IGN's Star Wars hub for even more on Lucasfilms' beloved cinematic universe.

Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and YouTube