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This is going to be the saddest Fourth of May ever.
Long live the mighty Mayhew. Be at peace.
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Posted: |
May 4, 2019 - 11:31 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Reportedly, George Lucas decided to hire Peter Mayhew for STAR WARS immediately upon seeing his 7’2” height. Mayhew and David Prowse were given a choice as to which giant character they wanted to play, Chewbacca or Darth Vader. Mayhew wanted to play a good guy, and Prowse wanted to play a bad guy, so there was no problem in assigning them to the proper roles.
Explaining that STAR WARS characters were inspired by his desire to produce a sequel to 1971’s THX 1138, Lucas noted that the “Jawas” were recreations of THX’s “shell dwellers,” and the term “Wookiees” had been invented by Bay Area disc jockey Terry McGovern, who was an uncredited voice-over performer in THX, as well as a credited actor in AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973).
Lucas had originally planned to give Wookiees a more influential role in STAR WARS. One early script included a Wookiee planet, where “Luke Skywalker” gained the respect of the alien creatures and enlisted them as fellow rebels. In this scenario, the Wookiees were envisioned as smaller, with heads like that of "giant bush babies", and not technologically capable. The Wookiees were ultimately the warriors who attacked the evil imperial Death Star, not the human rebels. A later draft was a substantial re-write that cut all this out, but Lucas still wanted a Wookiee in the movie, so he created “Chewbacca,” a Wookiee co-pilot who was familiar with technology.
Peter Mayhew and Harrison Ford in STAR WARS
Chewbacca was modelled after George Lucas' dog, Indiana. The full name Chewbacca is only said once in STAR WARS. Every other time, he is called just "Chewie". Chewbacca is 200 years old. In the recording "The Story of Star Wars" (issued as a book-and-record set, with stills from the movie illustrating the story), narrator Roscoe Lee Browne introduces Chewbacca as "a 200 year old Wookiee". In SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (2018), which takes place about a decade earlier, Chewbacca is correctly identified as being 190 years old.
According to sound effects artist Ben Burtt, the sounds Chewbacca makes were created from a compilation of large mammals, mostly bears. He said that one particular zoo-kept grizzly bear was an invaluable source of Chewbacca sounds.
According to Mark Hamill, studio executives were unhappy that Chewbacca had no clothes and attempted to have the costume redesigned with shorts. Mayhew’s Chewbacca suit retained a bad smell for the duration of filming after the trash compactor scene.
Although it's commonly believed that the last lines of the movie are C-3PO's "circuits and gears" line, and Luke's reply, they were just the last human lines. The actual last lines were an untranslated exchange between R2-D2 and Chewbacca during the medal ceremony.
Some fans took offense to the fact that Chewbacca did not receive a medal in that closing scene. MTV remedied this twenty years later when they gave the character a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by none other than Carrie Fisher. Marvel Comics' adaptation of the movie explained, "Chewbacca of course will have his own medal, but he will have to put it on himself. Few space Princesses are that tall."
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Peter Mayhew reprised his role of Chewbacca in the third STAR WARS film, 1983’s RETURN OF THE JEDI.
While filming on-location for the Endor scenes, in the California redwoods, Peter Mayhew was escorted by crew members so that hunters would not mistake him for Bigfoot. Mayhew had a stunt double during the scene of the Sarlacc fight in which the skiff jolted, causing Han Solo to hang upside down.
This is the only movie in the original trilogy in which Chewbacca fires his Wookiee bowcaster (on Endor, at a fleeing biker scout). Although Luke refers to it in this film as a "crossbow", Chewie's weapon was given its proper name by author Brian Daley in the 1981 National Public Radio dramatization of STAR WARS.
George Lucas had a script policy which was carried over to the novel-writing policy today. Any characters from the original trilogy cannot be killed off by any means, which explained the reason he overruled Harrison Ford's suggestion of killing Han Solo off. However, he consented to R.A. Salvatore's idea of killing Chewbacca off in the novel Vector Prime of the new Jedi order (set twenty-one years after this movie). However, when Disney bought the rights to STAR WARS from George Lucas, they decided to scrap the expanded universe.
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Twenty-two years would pass before Peter Mayhew’s Chewbacca character would reappear on screen, in the sixth-produced STAR WARS film (third in the series, chronologically), 2005’s REVENGE OF THE SITH. In that time, the only other film that Mayhew had done was the animated DRAGON BALL GT: A HERO’S LEGACY (1997), made for television, in which he voiced one of the characters.
Peter Mayhew in REVENGE OF THE SITH
George Lucas initially said that no characters from the original movies would appear in this film apart from a baby Luke and Leia. However, the final movie also has Yoda, Obi-wan, Darth Vader, Palpatine, Chewbacca, Grand Moff Tarkin, Mon Mothma, R2-D2, C-3PO, Owen Lars, and Beru Whitesun/Lars, all of whom had appearances in the original trilogy.
Peter Mayhew in his Chewbacca costume.
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Peter Mayhew’s last official film appearance as Chewbacca came in the seventh-produced STAR WARS film, 2015’s THE FORCE AWAKENS. In 2013, Mayhew was forced to undergo double knee replacement surgery because of damage to his knees caused by his towering height. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Lupita Nyong'o accidentally revealed that for all her scenes in the film, Chewbacca was played by Joonas Suotamo, rather than Peter Mayhew, and it is unsure how much Mayhew (who had problems walking) is actually in the film at all.
Joonas Suotamo, credited as "Chewbacca double," had no previous acting experience. He is a professional basketball player, who played for Penn State from 2005 to 2008, and graduated a year early with a degree in Film and Video. With his height listed as 209 centimeters (6'10"), Suotamo is a good four inches shorter than Peter Mayhew.
Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), and Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb) were the only cast members of THE FORCE AWAKENS to reprise their roles from the original STAR WARS trilogy, while Daniels and Mayhew are the only actors to reprise their roles from the prequel trilogy as well.
Chewbacca rescues Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) at the end of the last battle. Fittingly, this was the only time he ever sat in the pilot's seat and unambiguously flew the Millennium Falcon as the main pilot. Prior to this, he had always sat in the co-pilot's chair with either Han, Leia, or Lando at the pilot’s controls.
John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Peter Mayhew, and Harrison Ford in THE FORCE AWAKENS
There was some dissatisfaction among fans about how Leia, in response to Han's death, chooses to hug Rey (whom she has never met before) instead of Chewbacca (as they both have known Han and each other for decades). In an interview with Slashfilm, J.J. Abrams explained that his intention was for Chewbacca to be concerned with giving the injured Finn medical attention. In his absence, Leia and Rey would feel a connection with each other through the Force, and therefore, in their grief, reach out to each other. Abrams acknowledged that he made a mistake by keeping Chewbacca in the shot, making it look as if Leia was passing him by, which was never his intention.
Peter Mayhew, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Anthony Daniels at an event for THE FORCE AWAKENS
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Peter Mayhew became a naturalized United States citizen, along with 441 other people from 77 countries, in Arlington, Texas on October 17, 2005.
Mayhew once noted that “Star Wars has been the best thing that ever happened to me. In the past 25 years, I've been able to travel all over the world and get paid for it. I never had to pay for a thing. I can go out in public without being recognized, or if I want to be recognized in public it will happen. Star Wars was great to me; I'm set for life.”
Thanks for all the fun, Peter.
The cast of STAR WARS (l. to r.) Harrison Ford, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher, Kenny Baker, Mark Hamill
Peter Mayhew with makeup personnel
Carrie Fisher and Peter Mayhew
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