In 1977, filmmaker George Lucas’s Star Wars thrilled audiences and changed cinema forever. When talking about this pop culture phenomenon, it’s common for people to mention “the big three”: Leia, Luke, and Han. But there was another character of significant importance and size: the 200-year-old Wookiee named Chewbacca.
Originally portrayed by the late Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca was Han Solo’s loyal co-pilot of the esteemed Millennium Falcon. Towering over the rest of the group at 7’5” tall, this furry beast certainly left his mark as the team saved the galaxy from the clutches of the evil Empire in the original Star Wars trilogy.
While Peter Mayhew reprised his role as Chewbacca in 2005’s Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, by the time the Star Wars sequel trilogy was in pre-production Mayhew had lost some of his mobility. As such, another actor was sought out to stand in as Chewbacca with attention being paid not only to height (Mayhew was 7’3” tall) but also to eye color as much of Chewbacca’s performance was attributed to Mayhew’s expressive blue eyes.
When searching for a performer that’s 7 feet tall, one logical place to begin is the basketball court. Enter Joonas Suotamo.
While studying film at Pennsylvania State University, Finnish student Joonas Suotamo played the power forward and center positions for the Penn State Nittany Lions. He played 34 games and scored 22 points before he graduated in only three-and-a-half years in order to fulfill his conscription service requirement back home in Finland.
Back in Finland, Suotamo continued his basketball journey, playing several seasons in Finland's basketball leagues. As he hadn’t gone pro, he had to find other means to pay the bills; so, he put his degree to use and started a video production company and, at one point, sold insurance by phone to make ends meet.
Prior to pursuing his degree in film, Suotamo had been involved in theatre in high school, but found the roles available to him to be limited by his tall height. His fate was forever changed at the end of 2013 when his Finnish basketball coach alerted him to a movie production’s search for a 7-foot-tall actor with blue eyes.
The nature of the role was kept under wraps, but Suotamo sent off an audition tape of him doing a caveman impression. After being required to sign paperwork featuring a code name for the production, he was able to deduce what role he was auditioning for.
Following multiple visits to London during the audition process and despite standing a mere 6’11” (compared to the Peter Mayhew’s 7’3”), Suotamo was cast in the role. He went on to study the ins and outs of being Chewbacca under Mayhew. Suotamo first brought Chewbacca to life as Mayhew’s double in 2015’s Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. It was Mayhew’s last turn as Chewbacca and his final film role; he passed away in 2019 at the age of 74.
Suotamo went on to play Chewbacca in 2017’s Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, and 2019’s Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. Whether or not we’ll see Chewbacca again in live-action films or on television remains to be seen.
Solo, which detailed the life of a young Han Solo and showed how the smuggler and the Wookiee met, was intended to be a series of films. However, its Disney-mandated summer release only five months after the release of the divisive The Last Jedi paired with drama around Solo’s directors being fired weeks before filming ended (and much of the film being reshot under director Ron Howard) culminated in lower-than-desired box office numbers and resulted in the apparent cancellation of future Solo films.
Since then, fans have rallied around the #MakeSolo2Happen hashtag with some proposing a streaming series for Disney+ if Lucasfilm isn’t interested in pursuing another Solo film. Solo co-writer Lawrence Kasdan says there hasn’t been talk of a TV series, but that he’d be interested in another film. “I’ve never been particularly drawn to expanding [Solo] into a show,” he said. “But, I do talk to Jon [Kasdan] and Ron [Howard] a lot about what went right and what went wrong with the Solo experience. I would be more interested in doing another movie, not a TV series.” Lawrence Kasdan co-wrote Solo with his son Jon.
For his part, director Ron Howard expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support from fans. At a press conference for the recent Disney+ docuseries Light and Magic, which Lawrence Kasdan directed and Howard produced, Howard said, “The love for Solo is, of course, incredibly gratifying and means a lot to the great cast who put their heart and soul into the movie.” He acknowledged that this support shows the film resonates with fans, but admitted that the fate of Solo 2 is not in his control.
Additionally, The Rise of Skywalker was labeled by Lucasfilm - the company behind Star Wars - as the end of the Skywalker saga, presumably concluding the storyline that featured Chewbacca so prominently. Chewbacca - as well as his companions from the Star Wars sequel trilogy - did recently appear in the non-canon, animated special Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation, but Suotamo was not involved in the production.
With Suotamo making the rounds on the comic book convention circuit, he may not need another career, but only time will tell what’s in store for this basketball-playing film student turned insurance salesman who eventually found an encore career as an actor.
Would you consider completely changing industries and taking up an encore career?
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