Chewbacca Star Wars Character Profile: Wookiee, Actors and Story

Chewbacca is a Wookiee and the co-pilot of the smuggler Han Solo, first seen in Star Wars (1977). That film was directed by George Lucas, and in it Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi hire Han and Chewbacca to fly them away from Tatooine. The pair stay together through the rest of the original trilogy. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), directed by Ron Howard, goes back to the beginning and introduces him as "a Wookiee named Chewbacca" held in a pit on the war torn world of Mimban.

Who plays Chewbacca depends on the film. Peter Mayhew is credited as Chewbacca in Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Joonas Suotamo is credited as Chewbacca in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In The Force Awakens his credit reads "Chewbacca Double", so that name is a credit for the second performer in the costume, not a separate character.

Chewbacca comes from Kashyyyk, the densely forested Wookiee homeworld, and NBC News describes him as a roughly 200-year-old co-pilot of Han Solo's Millennium Falcon. His voice was created by Ben Burtt, and it was the first sound Burtt was hired to make for Star Wars, according to StarWars.com. Burtt wanted the Wookiee to speak a non-English language and sound like an animal, so he recorded bears, badgers and lions and blended pieces of the recordings to build the character's emotions and noises.

Chewbacca is also tied to the Millennium Falcon, the ship Han flies in The Empire Strikes Back, The Force Awakens and Solo: A Star Wars Story. For the wider cast around him, see the star wars characters and star wars cast pages.

Two common questions about his nature have short answers. Chewbacca is not an animal: Solo: A Star Wars Story presents him as a Wookiee, a species with its own people. As for whether Chewy is male or female, film credits give Chewbacca a name and a species but no stated gender.

Chewbacca goes from a captive in a pit on Mimban in Solo: A Star Wars Story to Rey's traveling companion in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The easiest way to follow that journey is in chronological order, which starts with Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). There, Tobias Beckett has Han thrown into a pit with a Wookiee named Chewbacca. Han talks Chewbacca into working with him, the two escape together and join Beckett's crew. Han later flies the Millennium Falcon through the Kessel Run, and the partnership formed in the pit is what carries into the later films.

In Star Wars (1977), Han and Chewbacca are hired to fly Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi away from the planet. After the Death Star pulls their ship in, Luke, Han and Chewbacca rescue Princess Leia Organa from a cell. Han returns at the last moment during the attack on the station, and the film ends with Leia honoring Luke and Han at a medal ceremony.

In The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Chewbacca flees the ice planet Hoth in the Falcon with Han, Leia and C-3PO, chased by Darth Vader through an asteroid field. At Cloud City, Lando Calrissian is forced to hand the group over to Vader. After Han is frozen in carbonite and taken away by the bounty hunter Boba Fett, Lando helps Leia and Chewbacca escape. Return of the Jedi (1983) opens with the effort to free Han from Jabba the Hutt's palace, and Luke, Han and Chewbacca are sentenced to be thrown to a desert pit monster. The second half of that film centers on the Endor strike team led by Han and Leia, and the Rebels go on to destroy the second Death Star. According to the Star Wars Databank, Chewbacca later helps free his homeworld Kashyyyk from Imperial forces after the Battle of Endor.

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Han and Chewbacca find Rey and Finn after they escape Jakku in the Falcon. Chewbacca goes with Han and Finn to infiltrate the First Order base, and he later travels with Rey and R2-D2 to find Luke. In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Poe Dameron, Finn and Chewbacca learn that Palpatine is on Exegol, and Chewbacca then heads to Pasaana with Rey on the search for a second wayfinder.

Chewbacca's closest ally is Han Solo, his partner from Solo: A Star Wars Story through Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Han and Chewbacca appear together in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. They meet in the Mimban pit, take the Luke and Obi-Wan job in 1977, and are still flying the Falcon together when Rey and Finn find them.

Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa join that circle in the original trilogy. Chewbacca helps rescue Leia from her cell on the Death Star, and in The Empire Strikes Back he flees Hoth with her and escapes Cloud City after Lando Calrissian helps them. Luke and Leia Organa share those threads from their side, and Obi-Wan Kenobi is the hermit who hires Han and Chewbacca in 1977.

The droids matter too. C-3PO is aboard the Falcon with Chewbacca in The Empire Strikes Back, and R2-D2 travels with Chewbacca and Rey at the end of The Force Awakens.

In the sequel era Chewbacca stands beside Rey, and in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker he is grouped with Poe Dameron and Finn. Lando Calrissian is a more complicated tie: Han wins the Falcon from him in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and in The Empire Strikes Back Lando helps Chewbacca escape.

Did Yoda ever meet Chewbacca? No film shows a meeting. Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) is in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the same films as Chewbacca, but in The Empire Strikes Back Yoda trains Luke on Dagobah while Chewbacca is on the Falcon with Han, Leia and C-3PO, so their storylines run separately.

Chewbacca does not die in Star Wars: The Force Awakens or any earlier film; he is alive at the end of The Force Awakens. In that scene Han Solo is dead, and Chewbacca flies with Rey and R2-D2 to the remote island where she finds Luke. In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker he is alive and working with Poe Dameron, Finn and Rey as the story begins.

Because no death of Chewbacca is shown, there is no age at death to give. The films state no age for Chewbacca or for Yoda, so neither can be called the older of the two.

Chewbacca is loved because the films show his loyalty through his actions, with the best moments being the Mimban pit in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back, the Death Star rescue and the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. My first pick is the pit scene, where Han has to talk his way into a partnership and the Wookiee chooses to leave with him.

My second pick is the Cloud City sequence. Chewbacca is caught in Lando Calrissian's betrayal, helps Leia get away once Lando turns, and keeps the group moving with the Falcon's damaged hyperdrive. That is the point where he stops being Han's companion and becomes a person the heroes rely on.

Third, the rescue of Leia from a cell in Star Wars (1977) puts him beside Luke and Han, which gives the audience a picture of who he is before he has much dialogue to speak of. Finally, the end of The Force Awakens is quietly strong: after the loss of Han, Chewbacca is the one who travels with Rey and R2-D2 to find Luke. That is a handover between generations, and it works because the audience has watched him across films released from 1977 to 2015.