New Star Wars sequel The Last Jedi is absolutely stuffed with high-profile cameos, from Princes William and Harry and actors Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to the late Carrie Fisher’s dog – but one of the earliest rumoured guest appearances in Episode VIII was that of Take That frontman Gary Barlow, with the Let It Shine judge said to be playing a stormtrooper.

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At the time, we were pretty irritated by the whole thing (the Venn diagram above probably best expresses our dissatisfaction) – but now the truth of Barlow’s cameo has finally been revealed, and it turns out that he wasn’t a First Order stooge after all.

Instead, Barlow reportedly played a Resistance fighter in the climactic battle on mineral planet Crait, in news relayed by Star Wars prequel Rogue One’s director Gareth Edwards (who also appeared in the scene, which was filmed during Rogue One production).

“I got this email through my assistant and it said ‘ok, it’s time for your cameo, it’s on this date, you’ve got to go’, so I went and didn’t know what was going on,” Edwards told Fanthatracks.

“It was really interesting, a pretty good learning experience because I suddenly realised what the extras feel like on your film.

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“I got there and obviously they probably briefed everyone but I got there late, so they were like ‘stand there, put this on’, and I went into this trench and I had no idea what was going on, and I looked to my right and it’s Gary Barlow,” Edwards continued.

“I think his wife or girlfriend was there as well. You start looking down the line, it was a bit like ‘I’m a rebel, get me out of here’.”

As far as we can tell, you can’t actually spot Barlow in the finished film but a few Resistance fighters survived the First Order attack, so it’s CONCEIVABLE that his deadly Rebel will continue the fight for balance in the galaxy in future instalments.

For now, despite all appearances (and his Mr Nasty turn on the X Factor), we can say for sure that Gary Barlow was on the Light Side after all.

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in cinemas now

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