CT Lucas reversed the Dog/Master ages with Han and Chewy

I just found out that Chewy is 234 in TFA and not quite middle aged. This was mind blowing but then I remembered that Chewy was inspired by Lucas's dog Indiana. In our world humans live about 7 times as long as our beloved dogs, in the Star Wars world, Chewy will live about 7 times as long as Han. Pretty cool little twist.

 

Interesting. I believe that Chewie was that age prior to the release of ROTS. But I'm not sure he was retconned to a much younger age after that. Chewie was Han's brother in many respects.

 

Chewbacca was long established as being around two hundred years old, during the time period of the films. I don't know if it was ever a Lucas thing, or if it was something that carried over from the old EU into the new.

 

I'm guessing Lucas because of this http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Indiana

 

The idea of the Wookiees, yes. But not details like age and what not. Lucas wasn't involved in the EU where he would dictate things like age.

 

There are interviews from 1977 where the actors talk about how the Wookiee is 200 years old so it was definitely something Lucas came up with early on.

As for Chewie being young for his kind, that I think came with the TFA visual dictionary. I have a feeling Disney wanted to make Wookiees live even longer than was originally intended because they want to keep Chewie around for the next 100 movies they make.

 

Yes the visual dictionary is where I discovered that he was going to live to be 500ish.

 

It might be a shame to admit, but up to this day I never really understood their relationship, especially considering that Chewie was already 200 years old by the time of ANH according to official sources, then:

Chewbacca barks a comment and Han shakes his head
in agreement.

HAN Boy you said it, Chewie.

Han looks at Luke.

HAN Where did you dig up that old fossil?

Wait a minute, despite his age and knowledge (wisdom?) Chewie actually mocked Kenobi although already by that time it had become obvious that Kenobi had helped them to survive thus far?

Wookiees don't necessarily appear to be too bright and/or intelligent.

 

yeah i mean that's not new, i remember since i was a kid chewbacca was over 200

 

Just because he was old to us does not make him old for a Wookie, so while he was 200 years old he was still young and immature. Chewie owed Han a life debt for saving him from slavery. I think they were both somewhat immature and basically drinking buddies without the drinks.

 

I have two points to make here.

One: In the out-takes of that scene we can hear Mayhew saying "That man is mad!" So Han's response about Kenobi being an old fossil is Han's own invention, not based directly on any age-disparaging remark Chewie made.

Two: Conversely, in the real world a human being might disparage a 15-year-old dog for being old, even though a human of the same age would be a child/minor/young person. So even if we reject what Mayhew said on set, and surmise that Chewie is somehow disparaging Kenobi's age, he would be doing so based on humans' rate of ageing, not Wookiees'.

 

Think about the situation Chewie found himself in at the time! They were holed up in a control room on a battle station the size of a moon with an entire imperial army aboard with them! Anyone would think Obi Wan's plan is mad.

 

I think Chewie should have been aged a bit in TFA. In ROTS most of the wookies were bigger than him and most had some greying. I guess Chewie could just be a thin Wookie but there should have been a bit of greying. Ever noticed how Chewie in ROTJ has a different hair style than in ANH? I think TFA had him revert back to his ANH do.

 

I thought Chewy looked the best ever in TFA, they really accentuated his height with camera angles. I love that look of him looking down at everyone, like a badass bodyguard, holding his bowcaster.

 

He was always around 200 to the best of my knowledge and young to middle aged for a Wookie. Pretty much the same relative age as Han in Star Wars.

Definitely established by Empire on my bubble gum cards.

Yoda if I recall correctly was listed as 969, the same age as Methuselah which I remember thinking was neat at the time.

 

So Yoda was about the same age as Maz, Interesting.