ChewbaccaPortrayed by: Peter Mayhew, Joonas Suotamonote
Appears in: The Clone Wars | Revenge of the Sith | A New Hope | Commander | Smuggler's Run | Princess Leia | Chewbacca | Marvel Star Wars (2015) | Han Solo | The Empire Strikes Back | Return of the Jedi | Shattered Empire | Aftermath | Life Debt | The Force Awakens | Episode VIII
"I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, Artoo: let the Wookiee win."— C-3PO
Han Solo's Wookiee first mate and co-pilot aboard the Millennium Falcon. According to official sources, Han rescued him from slavery at some point, leading to Chewbacca swearing him a "life debt."
Tropes from the Original TrilogyBadass Adorable: Resembles a teddy bear... an eight foot tall teddy bear who can rip your arms off as easily as breathing. If you're a friend, however, expect to be greeted with happy howling and plenty of hugs.
Badass Bandolier: It carries spare ammunition for his bow caster.
Berserk Button: Hurting Han, as Lando Calrissian's windpipe found out the hard way.
Beware the Nice Ones: If you do anything to hurt his friends, he will make sure you hurt.
BFG: His bow caster. While it gets a few shots off in Return of the Jedi to destroy an escaping speeder, attention is brought to how brutally effective Chewie's bow caster is when used on people in The Force Awakens. To make absolutely sure the target dies, it's a explosive quarrel rail gun blaster, and can blast people off their feet even from proximity blasts, to say nothing of what happens to those sustaining a direct hit.
The Big Guy: He's huge and strong and carries a big blaster. Peter Mayhew got the role simply by politely standing up as George Lucas entered the room. Lucas craned his head back to look him in the eye, and said, "
I think we've got it."
Bilingual Dialogue: He speaks Shyriiwook and Han speaks Basic, and they understand each other fine. A Justified Trope in that Wookiees do not have the vocal chords to speak anything other than Shyriiwook, and multilingualism is a surprisingly common trait in most people in the Star Wars universe.
Blood Brothers: With Han.
Bruiser with a Soft Center: Once Chewie
likes you, he isn't shy about showing it.
Cowardly Lion: While Chewbacca is brave and vicious when he's angry, he's also easily scared by certain things such as alarm noises.
Cuddle Bug: Chewie really likes to hug the people that he loves, and is no less manly in doing so. It also makes him a good warm-up blanket to any friends of his who were recently unfrozen and still chilled to the bone.
Disproportionate Retribution: Han says that if you were to beat him in a board game, he would tear your arms off. There's some implication that Han and Chewie were just teasing C-3PO, though.
Does Not Like Shoes: Or clothes, for that matter.
Expy: Of
George Lucas's dog Indiana, who always sat in the front passenger seat of his car.
Full-Frontal Assault: Just be glad Wookiees have so much hair.
Genius Bruiser: He may look uncivilized, but Chewbacca is a decent pilot and really more technologically inclined than Han. He plays dejarik (the Star Wars equivalent of chess), if not at R2-D2's level of skill. Yet he's fully capable of ripping arms off when angered.
Gentle Giant: As evidenced by his decision to repair C-3PO.
The Glomp: When he's happy to see you.
Intelligible Unintelligible: He speaks Shyriiwook, a Wookiee language that's unintelligible to viewers, but Han has no trouble understanding him.
I Will Tear Your Arms Off: Han implies that he's prone to do this when he loses a game. That being said, the way he said it implied that he was kidding. It's shown in the Marvel comics, though, when an angry Chewie rips off both arms of 0-0-0, Darth Vader's personal assassin droid. He also pulls one of Unkar Plutt's arms out on Takodana in The Force Awakens, a deleted scene from the movie that appears in full in the novelization.
Monster Roommate: To Han Solo. Of course, from a Wookiee's point of view, Han would be Chewie's Monster Roommate.
Morality Pet: Even in the beginning, when Han is almost a Nominal Hero, Chewbacca is the stalwart friend who knows Han can be a better person if he tries. He's also the one character Han was always infallibly kind to despite being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to everybody else.
Mr. Fixit: He's able to repair C-3PO on his own. And before that in The Clone Wars, he built a long-range transmitter in a tree... with a box of scraps, and it worked.
Nice Guy: In spite of his anger issues, and working with a smuggler, he's one of the most sweet-natured characters to grace a Star Wars movie.
Non-Human Sidekick: To Han.
Number Two: Of the Millenium Falcon, second to Han.
Really 700 Years Old: Chewbacca is 234 years old at the time of The Force Awakens, and that's not even considered approaching middle-aged by Wookiee standards meaning Chewie is still considered a young man by his own people.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Star Wars: Chewbacca limited series from Marvel shows that he sometimes has traumatic flashbacks to his capture and enslavement. Tight, enclosed spaces seem to be his major Trigger, which adds a whole new level of sadness to his unwillingness to go down the Death Star garbage chute.
Sidekick Ex Machina: Chewbacca (and two Ewoks) hijacks an Imperial walker and rescues Han and Leia during the Battle of Endor. That one move was the pivotal moment that led the Rebels and Ewoks to victory: From there, they turned the tables on the Imperial ground forces, tricked the remaining garrison to open the back door, allowing them to blow up the shield generator, opening the way for the besieged fleet in orbit to finally do what they went there to do: destroy the second Death Star.
Silent Snarker: If you pay attention to how people react to what he says, Chewie's probably one of the most sarcastic characters in the franchise.
Smart People Play Chess: Or rather, the Star Wars equivalent of it, dejarik.
Sore Loser: Han jokes that if he loses in a game, he rips the winner's arms off.
The Unintelligible: Chewie's only lines are growls, barks, and grunts. The script actually had lines of dialogue for Peter Mayhew to recite in order to make the other character's reactions to him more genuine.
Ursine Aliens: Wookiees look like a cross between bears and apes, or possibly Bigfoot.
Weapon of Choice: Bowcaster (Wookiee crossbow).
Tropes from the Prequel Trilogy:A warrior from Kashyyyk, Chewbacca helped defend his homeworld against the Separatists during the Clone Wars. During the Battle of Kashyyyk, he and General Tarfull aided Jedi Master Yoda in evading clone troopers when Order 66 was issued.
Badass in Distress: During the Clone Wars, he was abducted by a guild of Trandoshan hunters to partake their game of hunting sapient species. When he gets stranded on Island 4, he befriends and forms an alliance with the Jedi Padawans led by Ahsoka (who were also abducted by the Trandoshans) to defeat their hunters and escape the planet.
Barbarian Hero: The Wookiees are a high-tech civilization but they're certainly more primitive in most technology than many of the other space-faring races in the Republic, are highly physically active and live in woodlands as tribal clans.
The Cameo: His only appearance in Revenge Of The Sith is an extended cameo on Kashyyyk, fighting off the droid invasion and later escorting Yoda off-planet.
Four-Star Badass: Chewbacca was a general and on a first-name basis with Yoda. It was Chewbacca himself that got Yoda safely out of the fallen Republic.
Percussive Maintenance: In "Wookiee Hunt", he hit a Trandoshan in the head to get his brain to cooperate after resisting a Jedi Mind Trick.
Tropes from the Sequel Trilogy:After the liberation of Kashyyyk from the Empire, Chewbacca reunited with his wife Malla. He stayed with his family for years until returning to the side of Han, who returned to smuggling after his life with Leia fell apart.
Annoying Patient: He nearly killed Finn six times when Finn was trying to patch up his blaster wound. He's a better patient for Doctor Kalonia though.
Big Damn Heroes: Arrives in time with the Millennium Falcon to get Finn and Rey off of Starkiller Base.
Big "NO!": Per the franchise's tradition, his roar when Han is killed is quite clearly meant to be this.
Cool Old Guy: As mentioned above, he's young for a Wookiee, but being centuries older than his younger companions Rey and Finn, he serves as this to them.
Easily Forgiven: While Han and Leia have some issues to work out upon their reunion, Leia is delighted to see the Wookiee again after several years and they share a big hug, proving there's no bad blood between the two at all.
Heroic B.S.O.D.: Falls into a brief one after the destruction of Starkiller base, mourning the loss of his best friend in absolute silence following the completion of the mission.
Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: His bow caster is by far the most effective handheld weapon in the film, sometimes taking out multiple troopers with a single shot, and crippling Kylo Ren during his fight with Finn and Rey. Bowcasters do use blaster energy, forming the distinctive red laser, but the primary source of damage is the explosive quarrels that get shot out of a railgun barrel.
Older Sidekick: Following Han's death, he becomes this to Rey as he allows her to take command of the Millennium Falcon, and accompanies her to find Luke.
One-Man Army: Unleashes furry hell upon the Stormtroopers of Starkiller Base and even goes deeper into the base, and returns to the Falcon no worse for wear.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Chewie is screaming in pure agony and quietly retiring to a corner? Something is clearly wrong, that something being the death of Han.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Kylo Ren kills Han; he actually lands a shot on Kylo, blitzes through dozens of Stormtroopers, lights off the demo charges and vanishes for the next ten or so minutes.
Unstoppable Rage: Does not take Han's death very well at all.
We Used to Be Friends: With Ben Solo, who would later become Kylo Ren. After Ben kills his father, Chewie blasts at him in rage.
