The Star Wars universe is filled with iconic characters, from Obi-Wan Kenobi to C-3PO to Darth Vader, Maul, and Sidious. One character who is universally beloved, yet often sidelined – he didn’t even get a medal for his contributions to the Death Star’s destruction! – is Chewbacca, Han Solo’s Wookiee companion and the co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon.
He might have been dismissed as a “walking carpet” by some of the characters around him, but Chewie is fiercely loyal (partly because he was based on George Lucas’ dog, Indiana, who used to ride in the car with him), occasionally violent, and a lot of fun. So, here are Chewbacca’s 10 Most Memorable Moments.
“Chewie...we’re home.”
This tag at the end of the first trailer for 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens gave millions of fans across the world goosebumps (even if the movie itself would end up underwhelming them), because all these years later, Han Solo and Chewbacca in the flesh (or fur), boarding the Millennium Falcon, was still a sight to behold.
Harrison Ford plays Han’s smirk perfectly in this scene as he looks upon his beloved ship, the one that he’s become so emotionally attached to over the years that he’s just been reunited with after a long time, and says, “Chewie...we’re home.”
Barbecuing and eating a Porg in front of other Porgs
The Porgs in The Last Jedi were criticized for being yet another cutesy alien species in the same vein as Return of the Jedi’s Ewoks. But it wasn’t all about selling toys. There was one disturbing moment in which Chewie cooked and ate a Porg in front of all the other Porgs.
Luke Skywalker’s hiding spot on Ahch-To apparently doesn’t grow a lot of fruits and vegetables, leaving Chewie to barbecue the creatures around him. He later took a Porg with him when he left for Crait with Rey, and let the Porg hang out on the dashboard of the Falcon, and thankfully, he didn’t eat that one (that we know of).
Reassembling C-3PO
When it becomes apparent that the hospitality provided for the Rebels at Cloud City is not all that it seems, the characters flee. But Chewbacca makes a quick stop to pick up the pieces of C-3PO, who has been abducted and disassembled by a couple of Bespin scavengers.
He didn’t have to stop off for Threepio, but over the course of their adventure together, he’s become endeared to the pontificating protocol droid. So, he takes him back to the Falcon and reassembles him, albeit putting his head on backwards. Without Chewie’s heroism, Threepio wouldn’t have been around for so many years to come.
Scaring a mouse droid on the Death Star
The MSE-6-series repair droids, nicknamed “mouse droids,” don’t have an easy life. And it’s made even harder when Wookiees roar at them. When the heroes infiltrate the Death Star, Luke and Han don some stolen Stormtrooper suits and handcuff Chewbacca.
The guise is that they’re a pair of Stormtroopers who have captured a Wookiee and they’re taking him to a holding cell, which takes them conveniently to where Leia has been imprisoned. Despite being disguised as a prisoner, with a cover that he can’t afford to blow, Chewie can’t help but give a little passing mouse droid a good fright.
Detonating the bombs that blew up Starkiller Base
Many Star Wars fans, including George Lucas himself, were disappointed that J.J. Abrams just rehashed A New Hope’s Death Star plot in The Force Awakens. Starkiller Base was just a bigger version of the Death Star, yet another superweapon capable of destroying planets that the Rebellion – sorry, Resistance – needed to blow up.
Still, as long as they were going with that concept, the destruction of Starkiller Base is an exciting sequence. And Chewbacca is the one that detonates the bombs that start it off. He allows the Resistance pilots waiting in the cosmos to swoop in and blow the thing to smithereens.
Ambushing an AT-ST walker from above
The final battle on Endor in Return of the Jedi is often mocked for the Ewoks’ ability to take out a high-tech autocratic army with a few sticks and rocks. But it did give us one awesome moment: Chewbacca dropping into an AT-ST walker from above and tossing out the Imperial officers inside.
The Wookiees are far from a savage species, but you certainly don’t want to get into a fight with one. Flinging the Imperial officers from that AT-ST walker is what allowed Han to get into the communications outpost and allow the Rebel fleet to destroy the second Death Star, so it was pretty pivotal.
Rescuing Yoda on Kashyyyk
Chewbacca and Yoda made for an unlikely alliance in Revenge of the Sith. After Yoda came to Kashyyyk and Palpatine unexpectedly executed Order 66 – the slaughter of the entire Jedi Order by the Clone Troopers sent to protect them – Chewie helped Yoda flee the planet. If it wasn’t for Chewie’s help, Yoda never would’ve been able to exile himself to Dagobah and live to 900 years old.
A teenaged Han Solo was originally supposed to appear in Revenge of the Sith, but George Lucas removed him, which is probably a smart move – it would’ve recontextualized Han and Chewie’s buddy relationship to a father-son one, which wouldn’t have worked.
Going on a rampage after Kylo Ren killed Han
Everyone apart from Harrison Ford was devastated when Han Solo got killed off in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As Han walked out onto that bridge on Starkiller Base to talk to his son, it seemed as though he might actually be able to talk Ren down from the Dark Side and bring him back over to the Light Side.
Well, that is, if it wasn’t spoiled for you before you saw the movie, and then he plunged his lightsaber into his father’s abdomen. Chewbacca was furious and heartbroken in equal measure, flying into a murderous rampage to avenge his fallen friend.
Strangling Lando for his betrayal
Lando Calrissian welcomes his old frenemy Han Solo and his friends to Cloud City with open arms in The Empire Strikes Back, but this turns out to be a trap. Lando is in cahoots with Darth Vader, and his plan is to turn them over to the Empire. When Han is taken and Lando is exposed as a traitor, Chewie grabs him by the throat and strangles him.
Lando has to barter for his own life by desperately telling the heroes that there’s a chance they can still save Han. Chewie can really spring into action when his friends are in danger.
“Laugh it up, fuzzball!”
Although Han is understandably offended when Leia calls him a “stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder” at the Rebel base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, Chewie gets a good kick out of it. Han says, “Laugh it up, fuzzball!” This quote is so iconic that the writers of Family Guy used it as the title of their trilogy of Star Wars parody episodes.
Unless you’re fluent in the Wookiees’ language, it’s tough to tell what Han and Chewie are saying to each other sometimes, but they clearly have a fun rapport. And it’s often clear what Chewie is saying from context.