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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

The Return of Chewbacca 540

Posted by timothy from the ready-for-his-closeup dept.
BrunoC writes "It's official! Peter Mayhew is going to play everyone's favorite wookie once again: Chewbacca is returning in Episode III, currently in pre-production phase. Peter says (quoted from StarWars.com) "I'm delighted to return as Chewbacca, I think his re-appearance in this film is a fitting way to tie the whole saga together, especially for Wookiee fans." Woa! Just for the records: Artoo and C-3PO will be there too! You can read the official annoucement here, at StarWars.com."
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The Return of Chewbacca More

The Return of Chewbacca

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  • My God, the spoilers! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Sancho ( 17056 )
    WHY can't the editors realize that there are people who don't want these spoilers, even seemingly minor ones like this?
    It's extremely inconsiderate. Presumably they don't want people to stop reading their site, right?

    • Re:My God, the spoilers! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by inertia187 ( 156602 ) * on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:25PM (#5815234) Homepage Journal
      Spoiler from what? The preview? You're were going to find out sooner or later before the movie.

      A spoiler would be something like, oh say, that Chewbacca is bald in this episode or that he's gay or something. That would be a spoiler...not that there's anything wrong with that.

      If you want a spoiler, how's this - I hear Darth Vader won't be in this episode. How's that for spoiler?
      • There are lots of people intentionally avoiding all information about Star Wars. It's not particularly hard to do for movie trailers and television spots, especially if you don't see that many movies to begin with. The first movie that will have the trailer is always highly publicized and you can avoid it fairly easily. After that, you've had warning and can avoid future trailers. For TV, it's a matter of turning it off while the commercial is on. But when you aren't expecting it and slashdot posts a s

    • Re:My God, the spoilers! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Imperial Tacohead ( 216035 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:28PM (#5815252)
      It's not a minor spoiler, either. I mean, I hardly obsess over this sort of thing, but given that Chewey is one of the most beloved characters in all of Star Wars, I really think this would have gone over better as a surprise.

    • Re:My God, the spoilers! (Score:5, Funny)

      by DA-MAN ( 17442 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:07PM (#5815443) Homepage
      A great many bothans died to get this information across, and you dare to complain?!?!
    • Given that Lucasfilm itself publicly announced it well in advance (the movie's not even shooting yet, and is a little over two years away from release), it's obviously not meant to be any kind of surprise (which I acknowledge is not the same thing as saying there aren't any fans who would prefer it to be one). There were certainly spoilers floating around for the first two prequels, but none of them came from Lucasfilm itself; they apparently don't consider this any kind of secret, but rather something for

  • Spoiler? (Score:2, Funny)

    by OctavianMH ( 61823 )
    Uhhhhh on behalf of the 1.5 million geeks WHO DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW THAT, thanks a bunch!

    Time for a padlock on the mousebutton that hits that 'post' button, mayhap?

    Octavian

    • Use the force... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Big Sean O ( 317186 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:24PM (#5815224)
      Step 1: Go to your preferences [slashdot.org] page.

      Step 2: Scroll down to the "Star wars Prequels" checkbox.

      Step 3: Check it.

      Step 4: Done.

      Then you won't be bothered with those pesky Star Wars articles that will contain filthy spoilers.

      Oh, you want to know about the Star Wars Prequels, but you just don't want any spoilers?

      Step 1: Stop reading slashdot.

      Step 2: You can't have everything.

      Step 2: Done.
      • It would take so little effort for the editors to show a little discretion. Geez, they could just mark these things with "*SPOILER*" in the article title and no one would complain. That's all. I may not be able to have everything, but since I already don't have the contents of Fort Knox, I figure I ought to be able to get this at least.

  • Please (Score:5, Funny)

    by starseeker ( 141897 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:17PM (#5815186) Homepage
    Let Chewbacca take out Jar-jar! Please? I'd pay money to see that.

    • Re:Please (Score:5, Funny)

      by kzinti ( 9651 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:24PM (#5815227) Homepage Journal
      Cool idea! Kinda like a 21st-century successor to Bambi Meets Godzilla - but with lots of cool computer-rendered Jar-Jar-frag-guts as Chewie tears him to bits. "Meeza Gonna DIE!"

    • Re:Please (Score:4, Funny)

      by oconnorcjo ( 242077 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:58PM (#5815402) Journal
      Let Chewbacca take out Jar-jar! Please? I'd pay money to see that.

      Remember Chewbacca and the 3D chess scene... Perfect way to explain how Chewbacca got his reputation as a "bad sport" when lossing.

      If Lucas needs help finding a way to play it out:

      Have Jar-jar try to take a piece using his tounge and Chewbacca yanks that disgusting tounge up and away from the board causing Jar-jar to clumsily stumble forward and slam his face into the table braking his neck.
      I am usually not a big fan of physical (3 stooges) comedy but The harder Jar-jar flails, twist and stumbles before slamming his face into the table, the better it would be. George you can have this idea for free with my pleasure.
      • Horrible lightsaber accident.

        Any other cool ideas on how to have chewy (or anyone) take out Jar-Jar. Just of fun of course, I love the cuddly little bastard (as long as he doesn't take up too much screen time).
    • Remember, Lucas is trying to show the conversion of a very promising young Jedi Knight into the right hand man for the forces of evil. What could be the triggering factor that would make a character such as Anakin no longer value sentient life? If taking revenge for his mother's death wasn't enough to push him over the edge for good, what will be?

      It can only be Jar-Jar. That's the death that would really make the audience think. "Wait, is killing Jar-Jar really evil? Perhaps the dark side of the force

  • Great (Score:4, Funny)

    by Captain Rotundo ( 165816 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:18PM (#5815190) Homepage
    And with this Lucas's conversion to the dark side will be complete. Does he really have to shit all over every character from the original trilogy by associating them with the crap he's been making?

    I'd rather see chewbacca appear in a romantic comedy with sandra bullock before the shit that will be Episode III. at least then the plot would most likely make sense to anyone over the age of three.
    • I think that was called Forces of Nature [imdb.com]

    • Re:Great (Score:5, Funny)

      by Henry V .009 ( 518000 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:31PM (#5815268) Journal
      Your post is marked funny, but it's actually pretty sad. The new movies were written by a completely different author than the guy who wrote the original Star Wars. My guess is that the Earl of Oxford [sourcetext.com] wrote Star Wars, and Lucas is just some hack.
      • Exactly. I was so appalled by Episode II that I certainly will not be buying a ticket to Episode III. I know its even more apalling that a geek would skip a Star Wars film, but guess what I actually Want to enjoy the films I spend money on.
    • ...you forgot to mention:

      - How bad the other movies somehow failed to live up to every one of your impossible expectations
      - How much you hate Jar-jar
      - How George Lucas should listen to your creepy emails.
      - How he should please you and the rest of the mostly conflicting opinions of every guy who went to the movies and fancies themselves a critic.
      - To declare "[Will be] worst episode ever!"
      - You'd make his vision of his creation of his universe so so much better.
      • ...of course: how i should have used a unordered list instead of pedestrian hyphens. Ack, choking on ...your...ow..own...outrage!

    • Totally inconsistent. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jcsehak ( 559709 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:13PM (#5815461) Homepage
      I'd rather see chewbacca appear in a romantic comedy with sandra bullock

      Well, at least there'd be more chemistry than in Episode II.

      I agree. It was contrived enough that he had Anakin make 3PO, and it just HAPPENED that Boba Fett, the most popular bounty hunter, was chosen to be a model for the clones. Is he even capable of creating new characters? Oh yeah, Darth Maul. He was cool. Except Lucas fleshed out his character like Kate Moss trapped in a 1-dimensional universe.

      And you know, if he wants to maintain some consistency with the first two, he wouldn't use an actor at all for Chewbacca, just some fidgety CGI model.
  • Grargh urgh gruurgh Grargh gruugh rarrgh raarugh riaogh..... rouggg

    Isn't transliteration fun?

  • In other news they won't be rehiring Harrison Ford!! Because they can't make a Harrison Ford suit!! And because he would have told George Lucas to go **** himself and his Burt Reynolds haircut/scarf around neck under denim shirt!!!

  • Remember: (Score:5, Funny)

    by rune2 ( 547599 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:19PM (#5815195) Homepage
    Always let the wookie win....

  • Very High Directors (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    George Lucas must have been really high to think of Chewbacca. I mean that's where most of these famous directors get all of their good stuff...

    *puff*
    chewbacca
    *puff*
    he's a wookie
    *puff*
    arrr arrr
    that's the sound he makes, write this down

  • Chewbacca (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:19PM (#5815197)
    All you filthy, bearded linux zealots really identify with Chewbacca. This has to be very exciting for you.

  • Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Paladeen ( 8688 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:19PM (#5815199)
    At this point I am so disillusioned with the new Star Wars films that I couldn't care less who'll feature in Episode III.

    The last two films have been unspeakably bad and I'm extremely skeptical that the next will be any better.

    • No doubt. I saw Episode I the day it came out. My expectations were low, and it was OK to watch but I wouldn't want to see it again. I didn't even bother seeing Episode II (still haven't seen it, probably won't even watch it when it comes out on TV), and I could care less about III.

      Has nothing to do with MPAA or whatever other crap, the movies just suck, period.

      Mark

  • I can understand... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by craenor ( 623901 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:20PM (#5815201) Homepage
    People not wanting plot details, but in light of the fact that this has become a "news item" ... and not just on /. either ... do you people whining about the spoiler really think you can get all the way to the movie without finding this out?

    I mean, hello...welcome to the world of computers, posters and trailers...

  • First Wookie Post (Score:5, Funny)

    by FrostedWheat ( 172733 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:20PM (#5815202)
    AAarrrowwwngggg!!!!!
  • Since Harrison Ford feels that reprising a young han solo would be going back to his pre-star days and would look utterly rediculous (I agree), does that mean we're going to see someone like Tyler Hoechlin as a young han solo? "Some people say that Jango Fett was a good man, other people say that there was no good in him at all..."

    Or are we going to get an ALL CGI Jar Solo? "Mesa wanna play you sabbac for your hunka junka ship!"

    Or maybe a Golem Solo that runs around shouting "My creditssss...."

  • Big freaking deal (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bahamat ( 187909 )
    I was excited before Episode I came out. Excited for probably the worst movie I've seen in the past 10 years (except for maybe D&D).

    You remember what Scotty used to say, "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me".

    I should have known, because I was fooled a second time with Episode II.

    I'm not even going to bother with Episode III. Lucas has so discraced the legacy of Star Wars I can't even watch the origonal trilogy anymore.

    [offtopic rant star trek vs. star wars]
    Star Trek would obviously

    • Re:Big freaking deal (Score:4, Funny)

      by 10Ghz ( 453478 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:38PM (#5815567)
      You remember what Scotty used to say, "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me".


      I thought that went something like "Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me twice... You can't get fooled again!"

  • What a wookie. (Score:5, Funny)

    by iomud ( 241310 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:24PM (#5815221) Homepage Journal
    If Chewbacca is a wookie, you must acquit.

  • Shameless Hucksterism (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blair1q ( 305137 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:24PM (#5815226) Journal
    They needed to "tie the series together?"

    They've got Obi-Wan, Anakin, and eventually Leia and Luke to tie the series together.

    They're throwing in Chewie because:

    a) Lucas ran out of ideas a long damn time ago.
    b) Characters from the original trilogy sell better than characters from this one.
    c) Hey. Don't complain. Could have been Ewoks...

    • from what I heard... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by newsdee ( 629448 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:37PM (#5815304) Homepage Journal
      c) Hey. Don't complain. Could have been Ewoks...

      The Ewoks were supposed to be Wookies originally. But then some genius thought they would sell more dolls if they were all small and cute and annoying. So there you go, they just had to flip the name... ee-wok... wok-ee... :-)

      With a little bit of mental exercise you can ignore what your eyes see and imagine it's the planet of the Wookies all right.
      Use the force, wook. :-)

      • I heard it was that Lucas didn't think he'd get to ep6 so he put a wookie in ep4.
      • I pretend they're midget wookies...

      • Re:from what I heard... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Blondie-Wan ( 559212 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:15PM (#5815469) Homepage
        What became the ground battle (the forest part) of the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi was part of the early versions of the original story, back when Lucas first began working on "The Star Wars back in the '70s. Though Lucas always wanted to climax his space opera with a multi-tiered ground/space battle between the Imperial forces and rebels who had allied themselves with a low-tech society of hirsute anthropomorphic aliens (originally Wookiees), he was unable to incorporate it into the (first) movie, for lack of various resources, but still wanted to have at least one of his beloved Wookiees, so created the Chewbacca character to be Han's sidekick.

        After the original film was a colossal success and he was able to make sequels and spend more money on them he was finally able to do the forest battle he'd originally wanted, or at least something like it; however, having established (through Chewie) that Wookiees were a technologically adept people comfortable with spaceships and the like, he couldn't use Wookiees for the ground battle - part of the battle's whole reason for being was to have a technologically unsophisticated group of "primitives" overwhelm a technically superior force, and Lucas thought he'd established Wookiees as sufficiently technological that they no longer suited their original purpose. He therefore created Ewoks, who were smaller, but really amounted to the same thing as Wookiees in their original conception. Ewoks became smaller than humans (instead of larger, like Wookiees) mainly for practical considerations - not only would making them larger make them too much like Wookiees, they would also be harder to realize on screen (it's easier to find a lot of performers and stunt people the size of Kenny Baker and Warwick Davis than it is to find ones the size of Peter Mayhew, aside from which dozens or hundreds of small costumes could be made more quickly and cheaply than large ones - yes, it's that simple ;-) ).

        Another take on the idea can be found in the early post-Star Wars novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye, by Alan Dean Foster. Foster had ghostwritten the original Star Wars novelization from Lucas's script, and the novelization was published under Lucas's name; Lucas had discussed some of his then-as-yet unused story concepts for SW with Foster, including the idea of a ground battle between Imperials and an alliance of Rebels with a low-tech alien society. Shortly after the movie opened, when it was clear it was going to be successful but not clear just how successful (that is, not yet certain there would be additional movies), Foster began writing Splinter, incorporating some of Lucas's original ideas (including that one), and it was published in early '78, although by that time preproduction had begun on The Empire Strikes Back (when Foster began the novel, apparently it was intended to be the "official" continuation of the Star Wars storyline. The novel's plot-central Force-amplifying crystal was another idea Lucas had in his early work on the saga, but unlike the battle it hasn't yet made it into a film, at least not in anything like its original form, though the "midi-chlorians" of Episode I may have roots in the same ideas).

  • Total of people in the Star Wars Universe: 26 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gary Yogurt ( 664063 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:27PM (#5815239)
    How does everyone keep running into eachother? This galaxy of Lucas' is pretty tiny. Is Wedge going to run around in Episode III and introduce himself to everyone?
    • That would be a good time to explain why his face changes twice in the original trilogy...

      "Well, I was never really happy about my jawline profile... is this the best look for a hero of the rebellion? Or should I nip here, lift there..."

      "Go Away Wedge, you bother me."

    • Re:Total of people in the Star Wars Universe: 26 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @02:31PM (#5815869) Homepage Journal
      "How does everyone keep running into eachother? This galaxy of Lucas' is pretty tiny. Is Wedge going to run around in Episode III and introduce himself to everyone? "

      The theory I came up with is that the galaxy in Star Wars is VERY tiny, as "The Galaxy is on Orion's Belt" tiny. Not only does this explain why going from system to system is like going down to the store for a beer, it also explains how the Millineum Falcon can travel around various star systems with it's light-speed drive down.

      The movies make a HELL of a lot more sense with this understanding.

  • What about... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fishrokka ( 233163 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:27PM (#5815240)
    ...the rest of Chewie's family? Here's hoping Maula, Itchy, and Lumpy will also be making return appearances.

  • Spoiler? Oh well... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Faust7 ( 314817 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:27PM (#5815241) Homepage
    I think "Pulling a 'Chewbacca'" has a better ring than "Pulling a 'Lone Gunmen'" anyway.
  • Now we can see which character's dialogue is more inane - Anakin or the wookie.
  • I am reminded of the parody clip called "Jar-Jar's Walking Papers". Shortly before dismissing Jar-Jar, George Lucas has some bad news to break to Chewbacca.

    GL: "Chewie, Jar-Jar is your fah-ther."
    Chewie, in his wookiee groan: "Wooooooooooa!" (meaning Noooo!)

    Moments later, Jar-Jar is wiped from the slate, as a computer animated character, by the simple method of "Controlsa, Altsa, Deletesa". Oh so priceless. Who wants the clip?!

  • Lucas to Mayhew (Score:5, Funny)

    by ath0mic ( 519762 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:32PM (#5815283)
    Lucas points to casting room:

    "I don't care what you smell... get in there"

  • Folks please (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kelz ( 611260 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:38PM (#5815316)
    If you didn't like the movies don't take this post as an invitation for you to bash it. It seems like every time someone mentions some key word like "star wars" in a NEWS article, the same old damn topics always come up. I myself hated Jar Jar, but overall 1 and 2 were good movies! Lucas's "vision" was to create a precurser to the original star wars series, and he performed the task well imho. Lets keep the talk to Wookies and not weather the movie was good.

    This is not a troll, as trolls are green.

    • Re:Folks please (Score:4, Insightful)

      by glwtta ( 532858 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:16PM (#5815470) Homepage
      but overall 1 and 2 were good movies!

      Dude, have you ever actually seen a good movie? What, exactly, was good about them? The overall story arc, in the broadest of senses, was quite cool (and oddly topical), but for the rest? The laughable plots, the acting worthy of a highschool senior play, the absolute worst dialog to be featured in a mainstream movie for quite some time, special effects that would have been embarassing five years ago, the music, while certainly not bad, was just the same tired old thing that we've come to expect from this type of movie, no sign of originality whatsoever. Oh, I suppose there is really nothing to be said against the camerawork and the editing - bang up job there.

      It's all well and good, as you mentioned, that many individual characters and situations went against our individual good taste, that certainly doesn't make the movies themselves bad. The overall poor quality of the movies is what made them bad, and that is something that personal preference doesn't play into. No my friend, those were most certainly NOT good movies, by any strech of imagination.

    • Re:Folks please (Score:5, Insightful)

      by oconnorcjo ( 242077 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @02:29PM (#5815854) Journal
      I myself hated Jar Jar, but overall 1 and 2 were good movies! Lucas's "vision" was to create a precurser to the original star wars series, and he performed the task well imho.

      Actually I thought the movies were far from good.

      Major flaws in movie 1:
      1. Anakans script was DESIGNED for somebody who was at least a teenager. No seven year old has the hots for a girl in the way Ani talked or had the time to build so much hardware or race in as many races as the movie claimed. If Ani was too old to start the training it means that Jedi's were taking babies from mothers breasts (and makes Luke's start seem rediculous).


      2. Kill the whole mediaclorite(?)/Virgin Mary mess.

      3. What is comedy relief doing in a serious space drama? Jar-jar should have been killed from the final cut.


      While movie 1 actually had a pretty good script (that was butchered in execution), movie 2 was just a bad script. There were far better stories that could have been told that would have enriched the Star Wars Universe, but instead, we get a cop story with a twist of romance. Despite the weak plot of movie 2, it was executed much better. It is a shame that the "new Anikan" was not in the first movie.

      What made the first three movies (IV-VI) so wonderfull was that they had good stories that were executed well. Very impressive to do three times in row. In the first three, Lucas was the writer but let Irvin Kershner direct V and Richard Marquand direct VI. I get the impression that Lucas is a better writer than a director/producer. Or maybe his overwhelming control over the final product puts him in a position where no-one can criticize/"provide perspective" to his creative vision anymore. Whatever the reason, the first three films are classics while the stuff made recently is just summer action flicks that would have been forgotten by most if it was not for the name brand (Star Wars) attached to it.

  • how stupid (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ceswiedler ( 165311 ) * <chris@swiedler.org> on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:39PM (#5815322)
    OK, we have a galaxy (far far away) with at least a few thousand planets. Each planet would presumably have on the order of 1-10 billion inhabitants. So what are the chances that:

    1. a "remote" planet called Tatooine continually becomes vitally important to the fate of the galaxy, time and time again?

    2. The same five to ten characters coincidentally reappear, time and time again? C-3PO was actually made by Anakin and just happened to be on the ship that was attacked near Tatooine and end up on Luke's farm? Now Chewbacca is going to show up, as a "coincidence?"

    I suppose you could make arguments about the 'Force' making these coincidences happen. But you have to admit that's retro-explanations. Everything in Episodes 4-6 indicated that these characters were meeting for the first time, with no prior history. Now Lucas (and Star Wars fanboys) want to convince us that "no, really there's a whole previous story with these characters, which was never alluded to in the 'later' episodes."

    It just goes to show what a crap storyteller Lucas is these days. How he got that way, I don't know. But Star Wars these days is about as well-written as the Daredevil movie.
    • It must be the midiclorians!

    • Re:how stupid (Score:3, Insightful)

      by outsider007 ( 115534 )
      do you even understand the concept of a saga? heroes are larger than life and unlikely things happen. if you can't deal with that you can go watch something else
    • Don't blame Lucas, he's just following in the grand tradition of many storytellers. For example, Shakespeare wrote a number of plays in which characters separated earlier in life are reunited by coincidence.

    • Re:how stupid (Score:5, Funny)

      by bigdavex ( 155746 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @02:31PM (#5815866)

      C-3PO was actually made by Anakin and just happened to be on the ship that was attacked near Tatooine and end up on Luke's farm? Now Chewbacca is going to show up, as a "coincidence?"

      I think you have a very insightful point here. For me, the galaxy stopped feeling big after Empire. There are lots of examples:
      Why the hell was Lando suddenly a general? Didn't the rebels have a command structure.

      But . . . I think the particular example of the droids showing up at Tatooine has an explanation. Leia is taking the plans to Obi-wan. Obi-wan intentionally lives near Luke.

      The real head-scratcher is why would Luke be on Tatooine. Yeah, his uncle's there, but your step-father's house doesn't seem like the best place to hide someone, given the whole galaxy to choose from.

      Somebody once suggested that Obi-wan and Vader are really in league (against the emperor and Yoda, the latter of which I think is a real stretch.)

      But try this on for size:

      Suppose Obiwan and Vader are really in league against the Emperor in episodes 4-6.

      Consider this --
      • Sometime after episode 2, Obiwan "hides" Luke on Vader's *home planet*. At his step father's house.

      • Vader "intercepts" a rebel ship, and then his daughter and droids leave with the plans to the Death Star.

      • Vader and Obiwan's duel distracts the Storm Troopers, allowing the heroes to escape the Death Star on the Falcon.

      • All of Imperials on the Death Star die except for the super-human pilot Vader, who "crashes" into his wingman, freeing up the shot for his son.

      • In episode 5, Vader shows he's a heartless SOB . . . by choking to death a slew of Imperial officers and sending the Imperial fleet into an astroid
        field.

      • In episode 6, Vader consciously allows the rebels to land on the moon of Endor.

      • On the new Death Star, Vader says a bunch of things to Luke that don't support this hypothesis, so please ignore them.

      • Vader, in the Jedi tradition, throws the emperor down A Really Big Hole.

      • Re:how stupid (Score:3, Insightful)

        by RyuuzakiTetsuya ( 195424 )
        Vader and Obiwan's duel distracts the Storm Troopers, allowing the heroes to escape the Death Star on the Falcon.

        not only that, but vader most likely KNEW that if he were to strike Obi Wan down, he'd become part of the Force and become a bigger asset to Luke than a living Obi Wan could ever be.

    • Re:how stupid (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Blondie-Wan ( 559212 )
      I'll agree Lucas certainly isn't the greatest storyteller ever (even at the height of his creative powers, he wasn't the best, though he was good, and lately he's nowhere near his own personal best, unfortunately), but not all of what you mention is actually a problem:

      1. Tatooine is important because the story arc's central overall character(s), Anakin / Vader, comes from there, and hence has many connections there. Anakin's mom Shmi was left there when Qui-Gon freed Anakin and took him away to be trained

  • Hmm? (Score:3, Funny)

    by MadFarmAnimalz ( 460972 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:42PM (#5815333) Homepage
    I think his re-appearance in this film is a fitting way to tie the whole saga together, especially for Wookiee fans."

    Umm. There's Wookie fans?

    Is this a fetish thing?

    And I thought this [slashdot.org] was wierd... :-)

  • Hey, it could bode *well* for the movie... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blondie-Wan ( 559212 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:42PM (#5815337) Homepage
    ... after all, given Lucas's dialogue of late, the greater the percentage of characters in a prequel who don't speak English, the better... ;-)

    In seriousness, though, I'm not wild about this; I love Chewie as much as anyone, but to tie him to the storyline at this early point and then just happen to have him intersect with it again in the classic trilogy just pushes coincidence too far, IMO. Characters like Obi-Wan, Anakin / Vader, Luke, Leia, Artoo and Threepio, Yoda, Owen, Beru, etc. who have some connection to the royal houses of Naboo and / or Alderaan and / or the Skywalker family legacy make sense for inclusion in the prequels, but for characters from other circles (Han, Chewie, Lando, Jabba, Boba, etc.) who weren't already established in the originals as being connected to them to suddenly turn out to have some prior connection after all shrinks the Star Wars universe a little too much, I think (but then, that's hardly the biggest problem with the prequels...).

    *sigh* Oh, well. I'll still see it, I'm sure, and I hope it's better than the first two (hey, it's possible, right?), and I similarly hope Chewie's return / "debut" is either handled in a plausible way, or is simply good enough not to object to (or better yet, both). I guess we'll see...

    • Just as a point of note, Jabba was in ep 1. Recall he was in control at the pod races.

      Boba is the son of Jenga, who is the model for all the Storm Trooper clones.

      In other words, the only members of the other circles who haven't been involved are Han and Chewie. Time to bring them in.

      Recall from ep 4, and 6, Obi Wan took the son of Anakin to the one place he was sure that Anakin would never return to.

      It would not surprise me if Chewie turns out to have been a slave to Jaba and Obi Wan, or even Anakin fre

      • Just as a point of note, Jabba was in ep 1. Recall he was in control at the pod races. Boba is the son of Jenga, who is the model for all the Storm Trooper clones.

        I know; that's actually exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. For many years, before Episode I actually got made, one could naturally assume that Obi-Wan, Artoo, Threepio, Yoda, Anakin, Vader, Palpatine, Owen, Beru, (infant) Luke, (infant) Leia, Luke & Leia's mother (whom we now know as Amidala), and the then-unseen Bail Organa (

  • (verb) see: Jump the shark.

  • Hmm. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by D'Arque Bishop ( 84624 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:57PM (#5815393) Homepage
    Hmm... this seems to me to be the second time they've used Chewbacca to "spice up" the series, so to speak. The first time was in the book Vector Prime, where Chewbacca became the first/only one of the surviving heroes from Episodes 4-6 to be killed off. Now, they're putting him in Episode III... *shrug*

    I'd ask why, but I already know the answer. Money. *sigh* More and more I'm inclined to agree that Lucas SHOULD have allowed Spielberg to direct Episode III...

    Just my $.02...
  • I dunno ... my favorite wookie is Chewbacca's father, Itchy, who appeared in the Star Wars Holiday Special [teleport-city.com], along with Chewie's wife, Molla, and his son, Lumpy. There was also an appearance by Bea Arthur, but the word is that she was not actually playing a Wookie.
  • What I want to see is Harrision Solo come back for Episode III and play Han Solo's father with Chewie. I think that'd be a marvelous plot twist. Maybe have his dad be a CorSec officer or something - i don't know how the novels portray him.
  • Whatever favorable opinion you may have had of the original series, Lucas is completely creatively bankrupt now, not an unusual development for creative types. Does anyone on the planet think Francis Ford Coppela is still as creative as he was in the 70s (Godfather I & II, The Conversation, Apocalyse Now)? Why is it surprising that Lucas has suffered the same fate? Unfortunately, he has total control over SW and thus has dragged the franchise down with him. Too bad a Peter Jackson could not be entrusted

  • Official Announcements aren't spoilers, people.. (Score:3, Informative)

    by caveat ( 26803 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:31PM (#5815530)
    Besides the well-made point that you couldn't not hear this no matter how hard you tried, it's not even like this was a leak - it was a freaking OFFICAL ANNOUNCEMENT from the studio! Hell, Chewbacca's probably going to be on the posters for EpIII..

  • Alien names (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuiteSisterMary ( 123932 ) <slebrun@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:42PM (#5815588) Journal

    Ever notice how most aliens have names they couldn't pronounce themselves?

  • Lets get realistic with our expectations. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cant_get_a_good_nick ( 172131 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @01:50PM (#5815632)
    Star Wars I (errr, sorry, Episode 4, A New Hope) was one of the first movies I ever saw in the theater. I think I was 7 at the time, and it was the coolest thing I ever saw. The thing was magical to me, and I was mesmerized. Empire Strikes Back was even better, has some dark side to it. Return of the Jedi probably the weakest, at least to me. You kind of see the machinations behind it. The plot is pretty heavy, foorprints all over.

    Recently, I showed the first films to my girlfriend, who is foreign born and never saw the original. I thought "wow, cool, I'm going to show her this movie and she's going to be amazed". I watched it, and I was disappointed as hell, almost apologizing on how bad the film was. Special effects that created the state of the art at the time and dazzled you then, now looked tired. These could no longer carry the movie, and now you notice the oftentimes clunky writing and sometime clunky acting a lot more.

    I don't know why people are disapponted with Lucas' screenwriting in the Second Trilogy because he was never a great storyteller in the first. He never had a grand plan and kind of made it up as he goes along. A great lover of film, he was influenced heavily by the serials that used to run weekly before each feature. Star Wars started off as an extension of one of those. Bigger budget, better special effects, and feature length, but wasn't intended to be a cultural phenomenon. Just was something fun for him to do. Swashbuckling with ships getting boarded, sabers and rescuing damsels on lines; Vader's breathing apparatus is his own little peg-leg. Thing is, people loved it. And they put all this signifigance on it. It became part of American culture. Lucas kept thinking he had to consciously add things. He kept changing things mid-stream to add stuff (anyone else remember Luke and Leia kissing to make Han jealous in Empire strikes Back? I guess they're from Arkansas), adding characters, changing scenes. Trying to make this not some silly serial with The Force but an epic saga of the battle of good and evil. And he still has to make a buck, so he throws in gimmicks here and there.

    My opinion is that anyone disappointed just doens't have the right expectations. Lucas' writing is substandard, always has been. It's time to stop thinking of these through the eyes of a 7 year old, hoping to see the same joy and wonderment you saw when this all was new, and see them for what they are, films from a great writer of action sequences getting over his head and using his much weaker dialogue and story writing skills to wrap a cohesive epic saga around them.

  • Kind of depressing. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dswensen ( 252552 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @02:28PM (#5815843) Homepage
    Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it will be good to see a "classic trilogy" character in action again. On the other hand, I feel that the new movies pale in comparison to the originals. When the Tusken Raiders showed up in Episodes I and II, I was more depressed than anything, because it reminded me of a time when I liked the Star Wars movies a lot more than I do now. I think seeing Chewbacca may spur some of those same feelings.

    Of course, before the dark times... before the prequels... there was a lot less acrimony about the Star Wars movies, and not so much division among fans. These days, if you call yourself a Star Wars fan, people all but demand you defend the prequels as if you yourself had made them. I can't even watch the classic trilogy now without feeling a little sad about what Star Wars has become. And that kills a lot of my enthusiasm for the films.

    I think the biggest problem with the prequels is that Lucas has gone too much for physical spectacle and placed too little focus on making all the movies work together. The classic trilogy movies cost much less to make, and had fewer special effects shots, but were, I think, much better films. If Lucas had concentrated more on making the prequels fit the same "look and feel" as the classic films, I think they would have been much more successful.

  • Oh yeah? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Peterus7 ( 607982 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @03:12PM (#5816085) Homepage Journal
    I really wish Lucas would give people what they want...

    Jar Jar's head. On a silver platter. With Ewok sauce on the side.

    No, really, I think George Lucas really needs to learn that he's been getting a pretty bad rap for Episode 1 and Episode 2. His storytelling skills have rusted, and he needs to realize that the magic is gone.

    It was fresh when it came out, but now we're used to big aliens, flashy special effects, and bad acting. He needs to provide the people with something that actually lives to the level of innovating the originals had, instead of being all high and mighty and telling us it's an epic.

    The thing is people know an epic when they see one. You don't need to tell them that it's an epic, because then there's a chance you could get screwed. Instead, imoho, he should revamp his methods, find what works/what the people want, and do it.

    Another sad thing that I think the new ones have really lost was the feeling of the originals. The originals felt like they were made on a small budget and stuff, and the new ones just try to impress you with graphics and Jar Jar.

    *[/rant mode]*

  • New Explanation (Score:5, Funny)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @04:51PM (#5816435)
    Han Solo can't actually understand Wookie. Chewbacca understands english just fine, so he knows what Han is saying to him, but Han is just pretending that he knows what Chewbacca is saying back. So the whole time Chewie is saying things like "Skywalker? I think i met his dad twenty years ago!" and Han just tells him to go fix a stabalizer or something.

    C3PO either can't understand R2-D2, or for some reason chooses not to communicate what he says, so R2-D2 is running around saying things like "Watch out Luke! Vader is your father!" and "Hey Yoda! How's it hangin?" and Threepio doesn't bother to translate them.

    Maybe Threepio is still secretly loyal to Vader and doesn't want to tip Luke off?

  • Jar Jar was a chess player (Score:3, Funny)

    by AttillaTheNun ( 618721 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @05:45PM (#5816592)
    Now we all know where the anecdote about Wookies' poor sportsmanship originated (ripping arms out of sockets when they lose). In Ep III, Jar Jar will challenge Chewie to a chess match and, stupidly, will embarrass the Wookie. We all know how this ends (and have been looking forward to it since Ep. I).

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