Chewbacca is more than just Han Solo's sidekick. An outstanding warrior, pilot, engineer, and
friend, the big Wookiee is incredibly popular, but it turns out most fans don't know all
that much about him. Keep watching as we address some of the most common misconceptions about
Chewbacca.
The Star Wars Holiday Special is a crucial and hilarious piece of Star Wars lore. Filmed
in 1978, The Holiday Special reunites the film's main cast in a musical adventure that
featured the debut of Chewbacca's Wookiee family: his wife Malla , son Lumpawaroo, called
"Lumpy" for short, and his father Attichitcuk, who is nicknamed "Itchy."
Even the biggest Star Wars fans agree that the Holiday Special is phenomenally bad, so
at Lucas' behest, the special only aired once, and was never released on home video. Malla
and Lumpy did make their way into the old Expanded Universe, but Disney threw all that
material into the garbage compactor when it bought the franchise in 2012.
You'd think that would mean Chewie's family is gone from continuity for good, but you'd
be wrong. While Malla and Lumpy don't play major roles in current Star Wars canon, they've
been mentioned in the Young Adult novelization of A New Hope, The Princess, the Scoundrel,
and the Farm Boy, by Alexandra Bracken and in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy, which
explains what happened after Return of the Jedi. Itchy also got a mention in Solo: A
Star Wars Story, but unless you speak the Wookiee language of Shyriiwook, you probably
missed it. It wasn't until the junior novelization of the film that most people realized Attichitcuk
had returned to the canon.
Believe it or not, Chewbacca didn't spring fully formed from George Lucas' imagination.
While the very first Star Wars draft did indeed contain a character named Chewbacca, described
as an 8-foot "bushbaby with fierce baboon-like fang[s]," Chewie didn't take on his final
form until much, much later - and not until Lucas took a big cue from the work of another
high-profile fantasy author.
Famous concept designer Ralph McQuarrie, who's responsible for some of Star Wars' most iconic
designs, went through a number of different takes on Chewbacca, but none of those pictures
were quite right. At some point during production, Lucas handed McQuarrie a drawing of a furry,
bow-wielding creature created by noted sci-fi artist John Schoenherr for a 1975 novelette
by George R. R. Martin, who would later go on to write Game of Thrones. The similarities
between Schoenherr's illustration and McQuarrie's subsequent designs are striking, making it
pretty clear where McQuarrie's influences lie.
Chewie's appearance isn't the only thing Lucas "borrowed," either - the word "wookiee" was
actually invented by a voice actor on Lucas' previous sci-fi film, THX-1138, while improvising
some dialogue in the recording booth.
"I think I ran over something. I think I ran over a wookiee back there."
As the late, great Peter Mayhew told the story, you might think he was the one and only actor
considered for the role of Chewbacca. According to Mayhew, who stood 7 feet 2 inches tall
before passing away in 2015, all he had to do during his audition was stand up.
"I stand up. George goes, hm. And virtually
turned to Gary and said, I think we found him."
But according to actor David Prowse, Mayhew wasn't the first person Lucas asked to play
Chewbacca. Lucas was impressed with Prowse's small but imposing role in A Clockwork Orange,
and when they met, he said he wanted to cast Prowse in one of two roles in Star Wars. He
offered Chewbacca first.
"And I said, ‘well, what's Chewbacca? And he said, ‘it's like a hairy type gorilla
that goes through the film on the side of the goodies.’ And I thought, well, I don't
fancy that very much, George. And I said, ‘What's the other one?’"
That role turned out to be Darth Vader, which Prowse immediately accepted, and Peter Mayhew
was offered the role of Chewbacca instead. Mayhew went on to turn Chewbacca into one
of the most beloved sidekicks of all time, while Darth Vader became one of the most feared
villains in cinematic history.
In all of his big-screen appearances since A New Hope, Chewbacca's signature weapon has
always been his crossbow-like bowcaster. Unlike his brothers and sisters in arms, however,
Chewie hasn't been using the exact same weapon all this time. According to the reference
book Ultimate Star Wars, Chewbacca actually crafts new bowcasters regularly, although
he does seem fairly fond of his most recent design, which combines traditional Wookiee
engineering with the "power pack of a stormtrooper blaster."
That explains why the bowcaster bolts change between red and green in various pieces of
Star Wars media, and also helps clarify a confusing moment in The Force Awakens. In
the film, Han Solo acts like he's never held a bowcaster before, even though he's been
palling around with Chewbacca for over 40 years.
"Can I try that? I like this thing."
However, knowing that Chewbacca frequently swaps his weapons out, it makes sense that
Han just hasn't used that specific bowcaster before, even if he has used others.
Before Disney bought Lucasfilm and decided to explore the post-Return of the Jedi timeline
on the big screen, a series of novels and comic books explained what happened to Luke,
Leia, Han, and Chewbacca after the Empire fell - and it turns out that poor ol' Chewie
didn't fare very well. In Vector Prime, a novel written by popular fantasy author R.
A. Salvatore, an alien race called the Yuuzhan Vong invades a galaxy far, far away and makes
a planet crash into its own moon. Unfortunately, Chewbacca is on that planet, and he doesn't
survive the attack.
As you can imagine, Chewbacca fans were upset, and they let Salvatore know, flooding his
email account with complaints, and even sending death threats to his publisher, Del Rey Books.
But it turns out they were targeting the wrong guy. While Salvatore wrote Vector Prime, the
decision to kill Chewie off was part of a 20-plus book outline that Del Rey, Lucasfilm,
and some previous Star Wars writers made before Salvatore was hired for the project.
Years later, Randy Stradley, a comic book writer and editor for Dark Horse Comics, took
credit for Chewbacca's murder. It's all moot now, of course - in the updated Disney canon,
Chewbacca lives on, even if his friends aren't quite so lucky.
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