The developers of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy have explained the story behind the very hard-to-miss Chewbacca Easter Egg at the start of the game. Given how cautious Disney is with how the Star Wars brand is used, it's a fun surprise for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy players. It's one of many real-life pop culture references in the game, but it also plays a pretty significant role in the rest of the story.
Given the fact that Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is 80s-centric, it's not a jarring addition. The game is jam-packed with 80s music as that's what Star-Lord's cassette player was loaded up with when he was abducted as a child. Peter even has a poster for Tron and some other nods to 80s pop culture in his home, but the Chewbacca toy is the only thing from his home beside his tape player that appears more than once throughout the game.
During a playthrough with IGN, Senior Creative Director Jean-François Dugas explained that Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy almost didn't include the Chewbacca toy. He was initially told he wouldn't be able to include it, but after a year of working with the team of Marvel, Eidos-Montreal was given the approval to use the character's likeness in the game. Dugas was keen on using it because it immediately tells players when this flashback is and ground them in it.
The reviews for Marvel's GotG have been incredibly positive thanks to its heartfelt story, which is somewhat supported by the Chewbacca figure. The figure is not in Star-Lord's possession when players see it in the present day, but the reasoning for that is quite touching and shows that Eidos didn't want to use the toy as pure fan service. That said, there are some cool details for fans of Star Wars figures.
The toy appears to be an authentic virtual recreation of the 1977 Kenner doll, which sells for thousands of dollars on eBay now. That said, Star-Lord's version is out of the box and has likely had some wear and tear after being taken across space throughout multiple decades. There are a number of other alien creatures in Marvel's GotG as well, but Chewbacca is definitely the most recognizable of them all. Whether or not any other Star Wars characters will somehow find their way into a hypothetical Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy sequel remains to be seen, but if the game is successful, Disney may be more forthcoming with its other IP.
Guardians of the Galaxy is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch via cloud streaming.
Source: IGN