- "Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?!"
- ―Princess Leia
 | |
| Chewbacca | |
| Aliases: | Chewie[1] |
| Continuity: | Star Wars |
| Notability: | Supporting character |
| Type: | Freedom fighter |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race: | Wookiee |
| Location: | The Millennium Falcon |
| Associations: | Alliance to Restore the Republic Beckett's crew |
| Relatives: | Attichitcuk (father) Mallatobuck (wife) Lumpawaroo (son) Kallabow (sister) Sirrakuk (niece) Lowbacca (nephew) |
| Status: | Alive |
| Born: | 200 BBY [2] |
| Died: | 25 ABY [3] |
| First: | Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) |
| Actor: | Peter Mayhew Joonas Suotamo |
Chewbacca is one of the central figures in the Star Wars franchise and one of the most recognizable sci-fi characters of all time. Played by Peter Mayhew, he was introduced in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Mayhew reprised the role of Chewbacca in the film's two sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. A younger version of Chewbacca was briefly seen during the Battle of Kashyyyk sequence in 2005's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Chewbacca also played a major role in the televised 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. Thirty-two years later, Peter Mayhew climbed back into his hairy Chewbacca costume once again for the 2015 mega-blockbuster film Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
Biography[]
Early Years
Chewbacca was a wookiee, born the son of Attichitcuk on the planet Kashyyyk two-hundred years prior to the Battle of Yavin. [4]
Revenge of the Sith
In 19 BBY, Chewbacca and many of his fellow wookiees assisted the Grand Army of the Republic in their war against the droid armies of Count Dooku. When Darth Sidious instituted Order 66, which caused the clone armies to turn against the Jedi, Chewbacca stood on the side of the Jedi. Jedi master Yoda personally thanked Chewbacca for his heroism at the conclusion of the skirmish. [5]
With the conclusion of the Clone Wars and the rise of the new Galactic Empire, wookiees were highly sought after by Imperial forces for slave labor. Chewbacca was captured and taken aboard an Imperial starship. A young cadet, Han Solo, took pity on the plight of the wookiees and betrayed his command by helping to free Chewbacca. In recognition of Han's sacrifice, Chewbacca was beholden to Solo and owed him a "Life Debt" which, in wookiee culture, meant that he was now obligated to protect Solo for the remainder of his life. Escaping from the Imperials, Chewbacca and Solo became smugglers and outlaws.
A New Hope
- "It's not wise to upset a wookiee."
- ―Han Solo
In 0 BBY, Chewbacca and Han Solo were at a cantina in the Mos Eisley space port on the planet Tatooine. Chewie encountered a retired Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi who was looking for a pilot to transport himself, a young man named Luke Skywalker and two droids to the Alderaan system. Chewie introduced them to Solo who negotiated his fee for transporting them through Imperial territory. As they prepared to leave however, a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers tried to apprehend them and Chewie exchanged blaster shots with them before boarding the Millennium Falcon. Once the ship was in hyperspace and they were safely away from those "imperial slugs", Chewbacca took some time to relax. He entertained himself by playing holochess with the droid R2-D2. Artoo was easily beating Chewie at the game which incited him to snarl with anger. At the urging of Han Solo and Artoo's companion C-3PO, Artoo decided to "let" Chewbacca win.
When the Millennium Falcon came out of hyperspace, Chewie and the others found themselves in the middle of a meteor shower. In truth, the meteors were debris left behind by an explosion that obliterated the planet Alderaan. Shortly thereafter, the Falcon was discovered by the Empire's newest space station, the Death Star. They captured the ship and anchored it onto the station with a tractor beam. Chewie was forced to conceal himself from an Imperial scanning crew by hiding inside a smuggling compartment beneath the deck plates of the ship. Chewie, Luke, Han, Obi-Wan and the droids were able to sneak off the ship and hide inside of a computer room on the Death Star. Han and Luke disguised themselves as Imperial Stormtroopers in order to blend in with the station's personnel. When they realized that the Imperials were holding an important Rebel Alliance dignatary named Leia Organa prisoner, Luke convinced Chewie and Han to help him rescue her. Part of Luke's plan involved pretending that Chewbacca was an Imperial prisoner being transferred through the station's detention levels. Having been a prisoner of the Empire in the past, Chewbacca did not care for this plan at all and only agreed to take part in it at Han's urging.
As per their plan, Han and Luke, still dressed as Stormtroopers, marched Chewbacca down to the detention level. When they were stopped by Lieutenant Shann Childsen, Chewbacca pretended to break loose from his binders and go on a rampage. Grabbing a rifle, he began systematically shooting out all of the video cameras and audio feeds in the room. After a brief fire fight, the room was cleared and Luke had enough time to find Princess Leia. Getting back to the Falcon presented even more problems however. They found themselves cut off by Stormtroopers and Leia had to provide them with an impromptu exit strategy by blasting a hole through a panel into an adjacent garbage chute. With his enhanced olfactory senses, Chewbacca immediately detected an unpleasant odor and refused to go into the chute. Han had to kick him in the back side to get him to dive in. Chewbacca's mood did not improve after landing hip-deep in a room full of industrial waste. The group managed to escape from the chute and get back to the Millennium Falcon. Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had gone off separately to deactivate the tractor beam controls was killed while battling the Sith Lord Darth Vader. However, he did succeed in his task and Chewie and the others were able to escape the Death Star.
The Imperials sent a squadron of TIE fighters after them and Chewbacca flew the Falcon while Han and Luke manned the laser cannons and defended the ship from the approaching enemy vessels. Afterward, they brought Princess Leia to the hidden Rebel Alliance base on Yavin IV. Like Han, Chewbacca seemed interested only in collecting whatever reward money was offered for rescuing Leia and had no interest in taking part in the Rebellion. During the Battle of Yavin, Han had a change of heart and Chewie and he made an eleventh-hour rescue, destroying two TIE fighters and crippling Darth Vader's personal TIE Advanced x1 Starfighter. This enabled Luke Skywalker the opportunity to fire the "kill shot" which destroyed the Death Star. When the battle was over, Chewie attended the heroes' celebration at the Massassi Temple on Yavin.
After the Death Star
Having gathered their reward money for rescuing Princess Leia, Chewie and Han left Yavin IV to go pay back Jabba the Hutt. En route however, they ran afoul of a notorious space pirate named Crimson Jack. Jack stole the reward money and Chewie and Han were lucky to be left with the Falcon. [6]
Their next stop was the outer rim world of Aduba-3 where they assisted a Verpine priest bury a dead cyborg.
The Empire Strikes Back
Shadows of the Empire[]
Tay Vanis & Yom Argo[]
Chewie, Luke, Leia, Lando, and the droids traveled to the watery planet of Iskalon on a mission to find a missing Rebel soy, Tay Vanis. Upon arriving, Chewbaccas was the first to make contact with the locals, though not in a way that he would have preferred. A playful Inlashat named Mone took note of the seemingly overheated wookiee and decided to cool him off by splashing him with a large blast of water. Chewbacca did not take kindly to Iskalonian hospitality and Luke and Leia had to restrain him from tearing Mone's arms off. [7]
Return of the Jedi
The Force Awakens
Thirty years after the Battle of Endor, Chewbacca was still working with Han Solo. By this point in time, the Millennium Falcon had been stolen, forcing Solo and Chewbacca to make use of a freighter craft called the Eravana. They established various networks and connections all across the galaxy. On the planet Takodana in the Western Regions, Chewbacca formed a friendship with a 1000-year-old alien named Maz Kanata. Maz took a liking to Chewbacca an even jokingly referred to him as her boyfriend.
Chewbacca and Solo made many enemies during this time, including earning the ire of various criminal cartels such as the Guavian Death Gang and the Kanjiklub. On one mission, Chewie and Solo stole a herd of enormous Rathtars with the intent to sell them to another dealer. It was while traveling that they miraculously picked up the location of the Falcon, which had been stolen by a scavenger from Jakku named Rey, and a defecting Stormtrooper of the First Order named FN-2187 (Finn). Both the Guavian Death Gang and the Kanjiklub boarded the Evarana at this point, and while Chewie and Han were caught in the crossfire, Rey set the Rathtars loose to finish off the pirates. During the chaos, Chewie was shot in the shoulder by a blaster shot, but survived. Finn later patched him up while they escaped aboard the Falcon.
The group then traveled to Takodana where Chewie briefly reunited with his "girlfriend" Maz Kanata. Soldiers of the First Order tracked them down to this planet and a ground assault team captured Han and Chewie. They were rescued however when the Resistance sent an X-wing fighter squadron to fight the First Order. Though Chewie, Han, Finn and BB-8 managed to return to the Resistance headquarters on D'Qar, Rey was captured by Han Solo's son, Kylo Ren of the First Order and taken back to Starkiller Base.
Han, Chewie and Finn took the Falcon on a mission to Starkiller Base to plant explosive charges to destroy the facility before they could launch their super-weapon at D'Qar. A secondary mission involved rescuing Rey. After finding Rey, Chewie, Finn and she were on a catwalk, while Han was on a lower landing to confront Kylo Ren. Han tried to bring his son back to the Light Side of the Force, but the Dark Side was too strong, and Kylo Ren ran him through with his lightsaber. Chewie let out a roar of anguish and hate and fired his bowcaster at Kylo Ren, dealing him a serious injury to his side. Chewie then set off the charges and escaped aboard the Falcon, allowing the Resistance X-wing fighter group the chance to cripple the base's thermal oscillator, thus destroying the station.
Back on D'Qar, the Resistance celebrated their victory, while Chewbacca mourned over the loss of his friend. Afterward, the Resistance used a map carried by BB-8, which pointed the way to Ahch-To, which is where Luke Skywalker was located. Rey piloted the Falcon, with Chewie as co-pilot along with R2-D2 to reconnect with Skywalker. [8]
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Chewbacca was created by writer and director George Lucas.
- Chewbacca double redirects to this page. Actor Joonas Suotamo was credited as this in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Joonas played the character completely in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
- Original concept designs for Chewbacca were developed by Ralph McQuarrie. These designs were later used for the character of Zeb Orrelios on the animated TV series Star Wars: Rebels. Zeb's character was referred to as a "hairless wookiee" in a season one episode of the show as a tongue-in-cheek reference to his design origins.
- Despite being a veteran of both the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War, Chewbacca has never held a military rank.
- At the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, only Han and Luke received medals of honor. In the Marvel Comics adaptation however, Chewbacca received a medal as well. Due to his height, Princess Leia had to climb up onto a table to drape it over him. [9]
Pop culture references[]
- In the "Lock and Load" episode of the CBS sitcom series $#*! My Dad Says, the character of Vince Goodson opens a squeaky cabinet door to retrieve a pornographic movie. The sound it makes is the trademark warbling growl of Chewbacca.
Parodies[]
Brian Griffin from Family Guy: It's a Trap!
- A pastiche of Chewbacca appeared in the 1977 parody short Hardware Wars where he was played by a hand puppet. One of the scenes showed the puppet attempting to eat one of the doughnuts that comprised part of Princess Anne-Droid's distinctive hairstyle.
- In the 2008 comedy Meet the Spartans, Sean Maguire's King Leonidas taunts the Persians by making wookiee sounds.
- In the "Blue Harvest" Star Wars tribute from season six of Family Guy, Chewbacca was patterned after the character of Brian Griffin (the family dog) and voiced by series creator Seth MacFarlane. This version of Chewbacca also appeared in the sequel special, Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side and Family Guy: It's a Trap!.
Appearances[]
See also[]
Media
The World of Star Wars
Star Wars miscellaneous
Internal Links[]
External Links[]
- Chewbacca at IMDB
- Chewbacca at Wikipedia
- Chewbacca at Comic Vine
- Chewbacca at Wookieepedia
- Chewbacca at the Star Wars Databank
References[]
- ↑ Han Solo's nickname for him.
- ↑ Star Wars (novelization)
- ↑ Star Wars: Vector Prime; Original Expanded Universe; no longer considered a part of canon continuity.
- ↑ Star Wars Holiday Special
- ↑ Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- ↑ Star Wars Vol 1 7
- ↑ Star Wars 74
- ↑ Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
- ↑ Star Wars, Volume 1 #6
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