From the way George Lucas talks about Chewbacca today, you’d never guess that there was any doubt here. In 2019 he reminisced about his relationship with Peter Mayhew, and how Mayhew slightly altered his original vision of what the Wookiee was supposed to be like: “Originally, I envisioned Chewie as some big ferocious beast, but Peter’s Chewie wasn’t really ferocious. No matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t ferocious. He would be your best friend until he got angry, then stand back.”
Granted, Lucas has admittedly come under mild fire from fans over the decision to not give Chewie a medal at the end of “A New Hope.” Why did Han get an award for helping blow up the Death Star, fans asked, but his Wookiee co-pilot didn’t? Lucas addressed the anti-Wookiee allegations in a 1977 interview, explaining, “Chewbacca wasn’t given a medal because medals don’t really mean much to Wookiees. They don’t really put too much credence in them. They have different kinds of ceremonies.”
Medal or no medal, Chewie’s clearly a valued member of the “Star Wars” family. The furry giant has survived two galactic wars and has played a role in seven out of the nine main “Star Wars” films. Chewbacca survived the first few weeks of the production of “A New Hope,” and now he gets to live on in fans’ hearts forever.