Widescreen: In praise of Chewbacca, the galaxy's greatest hero
He's been piloting the Millennium Falcon since before I was born. He found and reassembled C-3PO after the protocol droid was attacked by Ugnaughts on Bespin. He hijacked a Scout Walker and finished off the ground war on Endor. He saved Rey and Finn from certain doom even after witnessing his best friend's murder.
So why aren't we watching a Chewbacca movie this weekend?
Oh sure, the Wookiee warrior is in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” but he's playing second fiddle to Alden Ehrenreich's younger incarnation of the character made famous by Harrison Ford. (I mean, come on. Chewie is WAY more famous than the guy from “Hail, Caesar!”) Nobody's rushing to the Star Wars Launch Bay at Disneyland to get their picture taken with young Han Solo — they all want a warm hug from the big guy. Even Princess Leia came around on that one; just minutes after calling him a “walking carpet,” she was embracing Chewie aboard the Falcon after Han and that Skywalker kid took care of those pesky TIE Fighters. (We'll forget that part where Leia neglected to award Chewie a medal in the Yavin throne room.)
Even 41 years after his first screen appearance, Chewbacca feels like a secret weapon in the “Star Wars” arsenal — so secret that writer/director Rian Johnson almost completely forgot about him in last year's “The Last Jedi,” where he served as second banana to a bunch of space puffins. Did no one notice that Chewie was a comedic assassin in J.J. Abrams' “The Force Awakens,” or that his interplay contributed to Ford's franchise-best performance?
The marketing department at Lucasfilm hasn't forgotten Chewie, but they did forget that there's an actor inside the costume — Finnish actor and former basketball player Joonas Suotamo has inherited the role from originator Peter Mayhew, who walks with a cane these days. A recently revealed set of character posters for “Solo” featured all the key players, with accompanying text: “Alden Ehrenreich as Han.” “Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra.” “Donald Glover as Lando.” “Chewbacca.”
Just “Chewbacca”?! No respect for Suotamo? The new droid and a CGI monkey man get acting credits (Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Jon Favreau, respectively), but not one of the galaxy's greatest heroes. Sigh.
Perhaps Chewie doesn't need the glory, the attention, the credit. Perhaps he's content to be the best darn Wookiee he can be, and to hug all those happy kids at Disneyland. Maybe headlining a movie just isn't his bag. Hey, if we're stuck with a young Han Solo in the spotlight, we can at least be grateful we're not reading 130 minutes' worth of Shyriiwook subtitles this weekend.
A new essential podcast
Longtime film critic Amy Nicholson and “The League” funnyman Paul Scheer have become podcast stars in recent years; she debates the merits of filmdom's most beloved films with a rotating band of critics on “The Canon,” and he roasts bad movies with June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas on “How Did This Get Made?” Now they're teaming up for “Unspooled,” a 100-part podcast reviewing every movie on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies list, and the result is a fast-paced, informative, funny hour. They started at the top with “Citizen Kane,” then went down to No. 100 for “Ben-Hur.” Add it to your favorites list on iTunes or Stitcher, or listen at earwolf.com.
Shameless plug
I joined “The Arts Section” host Gary Zidek last Sunday on WDCB 90.9-FM to talk about the summer movie season, box office tracking, film music and more. You can hear our unedited conversation at theartssection.org.
• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. Follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.