Wookiees ( ) are fictional humanoid aliens from the Star Wars franchise, originating from the forested planet Kashyyyk ( kə-SHEEK). George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was inspired to design the Wookiee Chewbacca by his dog, conceiving a character who was large, furry, and intelligent. The suit used to portray Chewbacca was similar to earlier suits constructed for 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the facial features as the main difference. The character's vocalizations were created using animal sounds combined in a way that sound designer Ben Burtt felt conveyed emotion. Since the release of Star Wars, Chewbacca and other Wookiees have appeared in a range of films, series, video games, and comics. Star Wars media establish a number of details about the fictional culture of the Wookiees, as well as their language, Shyriiwook. They are shown to have a rivalry with the Trandoshan species. Life Day is often shown as a major Wookiee holiday, first created for The Star Wars Holiday Special but since depicted and referenced elsewhere. Among the Wookiees that have appeared in Star Wars media are several Wookiee Jedi. The name of Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki, is a portmanteau of Wookiee and Wikipedia.
Design According to Star Wars creator George Lucas, his Alaskan Malamute named Indiana (who later became the namesake of the title character of Lucas's Indiana Jones movies), frequently sat by Lucas's side while he was writing or driving his car, which inspired him to give Han Solo a sidekick. He wanted this sidekick to be "like a big furry dog" but also intelligent. The character was named Chewbacca, from the Russian words чудовище (chudovishche, 'monster') and собака (sobaka, 'dog'). The name of Chewbacca's species comes from an ad-libbed line in George Lucas's THX 1138, where the actor Terry McGovern exclaims: "I think I ran over a Wookiee back there". Some sources link this word to the surname of a friend of McGovern's, whose full name is given variously as Ralph Wooky or Bill Wookey. The suit worn by Chewbacca's actor, Peter Mayhew, in the original Star Wars film was designed by make-up artist Stuart Freeborn. He stated in a 1986 interview that the design was based on the costumes used for the apelike creatures in 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the main difference being Chewbacca's furry face. He said it was otherwise "exactly the same inside". According to a 1976 article by The New York Times, Mayhew was the only available actor tall enough for the costume, at over seven feet (2.1 m). The design for the Wookiee's face was Lucas's idea, inspired by his own pets. He told Freeborn that he had a dog and a cat, and mentioned a doglike design. When Freeborn made a basic sculpture to demonstrate his idea, Lucas approved. However, Lucas later suggested a feline appearance instead, but he was again dissatisfied with the mock-up. He asked Freeborn to combine the two animals, leading to the final Wookiee design. Ben Burtt, the sound designer of the Star Wars films, wanted to create a believable sound for Chewbacca given that the character did not have proper lips. This led him to consider bears, as they use the backs of their mouths to vocalize. Across various accounts, a four-month-old cinnamon bear, three other bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus have been reported as sources of Chewbacca's voice. Burtt specifically recounted recording the moaning of a walrus from Marineland in California whose pool was being cleaned. After recording the audio, Burtt combined different sounds that he felt represented a specific emotional tone. Cutting them together, he said, created a "sense of speech" for Chewbacca.
Appearances
Original trilogy Chewbacca and the droids were identified as particularly memorable features of Star Wars and its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, by Aljean Harmetz of The New York Times and Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, respectively, in the months shortly following the films' releases. Mayhew reprised the role of Chewbacca in The Empire Strikes Back. Mayhew again returned as Chewbacca in Return of the Jedi. Parts of the film were shot at Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park in Northern California and there was concern that Mayhew would be mistaken for Bigfoot and potentially shot if he wandered off in costume. He was given strict instructions to stay close to camp at all times. In the end, filming concluded without incident. The final battle of Return of the Jedi was based on a scrapped concept from the first Star Wars film, which had originally involved Wookiees. Lucas envisioned a battle between the Empire and a "society of Wookiees" at the end of the movie, but this proved too complicated, and Chewbacca ended up being the movie's only Wookiee. When Return of the Jedi was being made, Lucas wanted to create the battle he had originally envisioned, but he no longer felt that Wookiees were an appropriate choice: Chewbacca's character made Lucas's initial conception of Wookiees as having a primitive culture seem inaccurate. Instead, a new species was created: the Ewoks. Lucas designed them to be the opposite of Wookiees: short instead of tall and short-haired instead of long-haired. Monica Zurowsky of the Calgary Herald wrote that Lucas said he created the name by flipping the syllables of Wookiee and rhyming it with the name of the Native American Miwok tribe.
Star Wars Holiday Special The Star Wars Holiday Special takes place on the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk. The film centers around Han Solo trying to help Chewbacca, again portrayed by Mayhew, return home in time for Life Day. Life Day was originally conceived as a galactic celebration, but the plot was simplified so that Life Day was instead a sacred Wookiee holiday. The film's first 10–15 minutes follow Chewbacca's family as they prepare for the holiday, conversing in unsubtitled grunts. This scene was likened by Chris Williams, writing for Collider, to "stumbling into a surreal, laugh-track-less sitcom in a language no one understands". He called the special itself a "perfectly terrible object" and wrote that other than Chewbacca, "none of the Wookiee costumes would pass muster at a local theme park". Another journalist criticized a scene where one of the Wookiees watches pornography. ABC News states that the special was "such a flop that it was never again broadcast on TV or released on video".
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