Peter Mayhew Rocks!
StarWars.com just announced that Peter Mayhew will be returning as Chewbacca for Episode III! For nostalgia's sake, it'll be nifty to have Mayhew, Anthony Daniels (C3P0), and Kenny Baker (R2D2) reunited after so many years. Just think of that holo-chess scene with the dialogue about droids not pulling people's arms out of their sockets when they lose!

In any event, this is probably a really horrible idea when you think about it. While Chewie is something like 200 years old by A New Hope, this probably will do something horribly amiss to continuity. Afterall... if Chewie technically shouldn't interact with Threepio, Artoo, Obi-Wan, and anyone named Skywalker (you'd think he'd remember a Skywalker from Tatooine, no?) this really limits how they can use the Wookiee properly. My biggest nightmare is George Lucas deciding to create 30 minutes of dialogue between Chewbacca and Jar Jar Binks.

Laugh it up, Furball!
Though I've heard rumors that Chewbacca will play a "big part" in the movie, the only theory I can come up with is Chewie showing up as slave (after the Empire rises and raids Kashyyyk for laborers). But, I don't think that really works out either.

The major bright point for me in all of this is that I get to see Chewbacca alive again... I still haven't recovered from R.A. Salvatore killing him off in the New Jedi Order novel Vector Prime. Anyway, here's hoping Episode III is better than Episodes I & II!

On the web: StarWars.com News Announcement