Lit is Chewbacca gonna be revived in the EU over the next two years?

Sequels aside, this suddenly gives me the idea of a Mace Windu spin-off.

Sure, 1 year after ROTS is the new 1 ABY, but I'd sure be down with a Windu vs Vader movie.

It'd be Pulp Fiction in the Coruscant Underworld.

BRING IT YOU ARMOURED MOTHER#%*$€%!!!

 

Exactly. EU continuity nuts (not all readers care for continuity) are just not important in the grand scheme of things.

Not to mention that Chewies death is easy to retcon. An aing tii or another kind of space wizard creature teleported him to safety before the moon impacted, maybe onto a planet without space faring capabilities. A few decades later, Han Solo happens to visit that very planet.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Teleport

Hell, such a retcon wouldn't even be stupider than DE or what have you other weird EU stories.

However, Chewie will most likely not be played by Mayhew in the movie since Mayhew has some leg problems. Some other tall guy will wear the costume.

 

Honestly I just expect any Wookiees to be CGI, as wasn't Tarpals (think that was his name) just animated in ROTS?

 

It is possible, but then Abrams uses a lot of practical sets and effects. He seems to only use CGI when necessary and it isn't necessary to CG a wookiee.

 

Tarfful was a basketball player in a suit. And honestly, I think Mayhew's poor health is the number one reason why we actually have a halfway decent shot at Chewie staying dead. Mayhew isn't in shape to play Chewie for an entire trilogy, and I really don't believe that they would recast the role. It's possible they do him as a cameo, but the fact that the EU gives them an excuse to keep Chewie out of the story may lead them to latch onto it.

 

Why not? What's keeping them from doing so? Anyone could mimic Mayhews body language and if that doesn't work there's always the CGI option left. Chewie and Han are an iconic couple. Disney will strive to include as many iconic characters, images and sounds as possible (which is why we will see new Star Destroyer, a Vader cameo as hologram or ghost and so on). Entire Hollywood is on a nostalgia trip reinventing old comic book heroes and yet you think they will leave Chewie out of the picture because of some old books that interest only a couple people (at least compared to the movie audience)?

They might ditch the entire EU, so having a couple retcons is pretty much the best case scenario. Learn to live with the Wook. Hans character development after his death still happened.

 

Mayhew is closely identified with Chewie, his particular unique physical mannerisms are closely tied to the character, he's well-regarded behind the scenes, he feels fairly proprietary toward Chewie, and the people behind the scenes may refuse to recast the role while Mayhew's still living out of respect to him. Is it more likely that they'd recast him than Han? Yeah, but I don't take it as a given. I don't think they want to start the ST off by offending a broken-down Peter Mayhew. It'll be Mayhew -- either cameoing or doing the undemanding stuff and having the rest CGed -- or no Chewie.

 

Abrams will definitely speak with Mayhew and ask him how he would feel if he is recast. If Mayhew is as vain as you make him appear, then I could see Chewie not make an appearance as it would be bad publicity having Mayhew publicly complain all the time. But if he isn't so vain we will definitely get our favorite Wookiee back.

 

It's not really a question of vanity, just one of respect, as Havac said. Mayhew may personally be perfectly fine with a recast of Chewbacca. But he's one of the original actors responsible for bringing Star Wars to life more than thirty years ago. He's been a significant part of who the character is since the beginning, and has maintained a healthy relationship with the franchise and fandom, including contributing to Star Wars-related charitable drives. In essence, Mayhew is Chewbacca and the same can be said in reverse. I don't think it's all that ridiculous to imagine that regardless of anything else, the sheer love of what this man's done and brought to the table all around might garner him the same modicum of respect as an aging athlete getting his jersey retired. It's not the end of the world if they hang up the fur suit as a tip of the hat to Mayhew.

 

If he is perfectly fine with Chewbacca being recast, then Disney will 100% do it. There is no question. Think of all the grey-haired wookiee action figures they could sell. $$$ and nostalgia is more important than empty symbolic gestures plus Mayhew could still appear at Cons and so on signing autographs because he was part of the originals and the originals will remain important forever.

The only reason to not recast Chewie into the movie is really if Mayhew behaves like a total diva and threatens to sling **** at the new movie. That is something Disney can't afford.

Side note:
Yes, gray haired. Who cares that Wookiees live 300 years in the EU? Not Disney.

 

Well, if Chewie does have a role, I wouldn't expect it to be anything more than a cameo anyway, to be honest.

Honestly, I don't expect anything more from the Big 3 themselves than what we got from Obi-Wan in the OT, as they won't be the main stars, so as nothing more than a supporting actor's supporting actor, there's not a great deal Mayhew would need to do than stand there and growl. Even if he had to do some Leap Of Faith and sacrifice himself to save Han, they could just get a stunt double for that part like they did for any flashy stuff Christopher Lee couldn't actually do himself.

 

This is how it plays out in my brain:

Space combat. The new protagonists are in trouble.

Suddenly, the falcon arrives and engages the enemy ships. Friendly banter between Han and Chewie, involving some choice words (furry oaf or whatever). Together, the falcon and the protagonists manage to drive the enemy off. They meet somewhere. One protagonist says "Thanks dad" to Han. Han makes a witty remark about how he won't be there every time.

And it will be glorious!

 

I read somewhere that they at some point tried to do Chewbacca with someone else that Mayhew (can't remember if it was during OT and PM was ill, or around the PT) - but it just didn't work out. Mayhew has such a unique stature and body language...

 

Just sticking anyone in a costume won't do. They will have to do a real casting for Chewbacca, just like with the other actors.

 

Even if non-fans liked the novel Vector Prime, I doubt they would want movies to be beholden to it to the point of major characters being dead.

Me personally, will HATE THE EU FOREVER if Chewie is kept out of the ST because of the EU.

 

Sad that some people can't get over Chewie dying. Sometimes heroes die, the way Chewie died was a fitting end, so no need for him to be in the ST. If some people had their way, they would never, under any circumstance have Chewie die.

 

One of the things i liked about Chewies death, is that it made a hole in the bubble of invincibility that surrounded the main good characters of the OT. If the EU kept going, i personally would have wanted to see something like that happen again with one of the Big 3, it wouldn't have to be by murder, but simply dying because of old age.

But if Chewie comes back in Episode 7, i fear there would be no more holes in the bubble, that our heroes would basically be invincible regardless of what enemy they fight, making it quite unrealistic. For if Chewie returns, im sure we will NEVER get a story in the future of Chewie dying, nor any of the Big 3.


I enjoyed Han's discussion with Leia at the end of Vector Prime, about the whole invincibility thing, and I would hate for that to never be explored again in the future of star wars controlled by disney.

 

And you need that because?

 

Because star wars would be lame if the good guys always ride off into the sunset after defeating evil. When many big bads always die, but never any of the big goods.

Sometimes heroes have to die. Take Obiwan and Yoda for example.

If they can die, why not Chewie?

 

From your first sentence it's clear you've missed of the point of SW! The whole idea is the good guys defeat unimaginably bad guys that should, in every respect, annihilate them!

The PT is the fall of civilisation and the failures of a generation, the OT the story of their successors achieving what they could not. The end. Obiwan and Yoda are of that prior generation, they need to die to free the way for the OT characters. Do the OT characters need to die similarly?

Well that's the problem that's blighted the late-post-ROTJ EU as SW does tend to kill off the old generation for the next, but that's a bit hard to do when the old generation are the characters people care about and are drawn to the EU for. The easiest solution? Time jump but Legacy did that and look at the crapstorm that blew up over that. Had someone had the balls to say TUF is it, things would have been better by far, but that'd be deemed commercial suicide.

The other point here is, if you want a character arc from start to finish, then corporate franchise fiction like SW isn't really the place to find it, you'll do better going elsewhere.

 

I am aware of that, and i have no problem with heroes saving the day. Im just saying, just because that is so, doesn't mean we can't have any of the heroes of post-ROTJ die.

 

But that doesn't tell me why you need to see them die? In what way is their story incomplete without an account of their death?

One thing the EU doesn't really seem to understand that well is that people follow characters and stick with them, instead treating them like pieces on a game board, to be killed off with abandon. In response to that I tend to scale back my investment, so increased jeopardy for the characters doesn't make me more hooked on the story.

 

I actually have nothing against Chewie dying. I didn't mind the scene in Vector Prime at all. Yes, sometimes heroes die, even in Star Wars.
But it still doesn't change the fact that offscreen deaths of iconic characters are bad storytelling. People who never read an EU book in their entire life will watch this movie.

 

Doesn't Chewie's age originate from Lucas?

I wouldn't be surprised if Chewie was already dead in Episode VII regardless of whether anyone working on the movie knows anything about the EU. He was already a secondary character to start with; his role in any of the sequels would be tertiary at best. Having him die between trilogies, regardless of how it happened, would be a way of conveying to the audience how much time has passed and how much things have changed for the characters of the OT. That idea becomes even more likely if Peter Mayhew is unable or unwilling to reprise the role; why insult his legacy by bringing in someone else to shoot what would most likely be nothing more than a gratuitous cameo? The Terminator franchise killed off its main character off-screen between its second and third films, and not that Terminator 3 is some unreproachable bastion of great storytelling, but it's been done before and I don't think it's at all unlikely that the same thing could be done to a secondary character like Chewie who would probably have almost nothing to do in the movie anyway.

 

Its Star Wars not Star Peace. In real life war, people die all the time (good and bad) so why not have people die in Star Wars. Is everyone still thinking happy end from ROTJ is still on? Its over people! New movies, new war! If everyone lives, what kind of threat is the villain? We need something that blows Palpatine out of the water.