Apparently Ian Wright missed out on the chance to be a stormtrooper in The Force Awakens because he’s not tall enough.

• Wright is 5’9″
• Stormtroppers have to be at least 6′
• Arsenal striker turned down for dream role in movie
• The Force Awakens (2015) grossed $306m

In today’s piece of generally odd news, Wrighty got turned down for his dream role as a stormtrooper because he’s – by film makers’ standards – vertically challenged.

The Arsenal hero reportedly wanted to be one of the iconic Star Wars characters in The Force Awakens (2015). However, at only five-foot-nine-inches, the former Arsenal striker was turned down.

The idea came about when a friend of Wrighty’s, who’s a director of photography, claimed that he could hook him up with his dream role as a stormtrooper, but when he reached out to the required contacts, it turned out that you have to be a minimum of around six foot to be one.

“I wanted to get into The Force Awakens because we’ve got a mate who’s a DP,” Wright told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“He looks after all the stars and everybody, and he works on the James Bond films as well.

“I said to him, ‘I want to go through the right channels, the right way – I want to be a stormtrooper! Can I be a stormtrooper?’

“And he said, ‘Yeah, OK, let me see’. He phoned them up and said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine’ and this and that.

“He said, ‘I’ve got to tell you, you don’t look like you’re at the right height’.

“There’s a height for stormtroopers? There’s a height restriction. I think you have to be 6ft plus and I’m like 5ft 9ins, so he said, ‘Your height might not be right’.”

Who knew stormtroopers were so tall?