The Prime Minister has joked about the possibility of flying a spaceship in a Star Wars film cameo.
Rishi Sunak, who is a fan of the sci-fi film saga, asked a local BBC radio station if it could “get me a cameo” if a future Star Wars project were filmed in its area.
It came after he was asked whether he identified more with the series’ heroes Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, or its villains like Darth Vader.
Mr Sunak declined to say which character he was most like, saying: “I’ll leave others to come to their own conclusions.”
But the Prime Minister did share his desire to play a bit part in a future Star Wars film with BBC Three Counties Radio, a local service which covers Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire was used throughout the filming of the three 2010s Star Wars films, The Force Awakens and its sequels The Last Jedi, and The Rise Of Skywalker.
Elstree studios in Hertfordshire was used in the original Star Wars trilogy of the late 1970s and 1980s.
If they could get me a cameo in an X-wing and I would get to say ‘Red Seven standing by' before we take down the Death Star that would make me a very happy man, so that was always my childhood dream— Rishi Sunak
Mr Sunak told the BBC: “Who wouldn’t love to go on the Millennium Falcon and have that be your ship, so I would love to be able to do that.
“But then again also piloting an X-wing has been probably one of my life’s bucket list things I would want to do, so actually if you could have a chat with the people who film the movies there.
“If they could get me a cameo in an X-wing and I would get to say ‘Red Seven standing by’ before we take down the Death Star that would make me a very happy man, so that was always my childhood dream.”
Introduced in the original 1977 Star Wars, the Millennium Falcon is a spaceship piloted by kind-hearted smuggler Han Solo, while X-wings space-faring vessels are somewhat akin to fighter planes.
Movie hero Luke Skywalker pilots an X-wing to destroy a space fortress called the Death Star, accompanied by a band of rebel starfighters known as Red Squadron.
It is not the first time Mr Sunak’s love of Star Wars has crossed over with his political career.
When he was appointed Chancellor in 2020, his predecessor Sajid Javid, also a Star Wars fan and friend of Mr Sunak, tweeted: “The Force is strong in young Sunak.”
Other British politicians have made occasional reference to Star Wars in the Commons, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who once compared Boris Johnson with Jabba the Hutt, a giant slug-like alien, during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Conservative former chancellor George Osborne’s name, meanwhile, appears in the credits for 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as tax relief he granted to the filmmakers helped ensure it would be shot in the UK.
