Wouldn't it be great if every major news break for the entire duration of principal photography for “Star Wars: Episode VII” was handled in the form of a selfie?
As the entire planet is now aware thanks to last week's news cycle, “Star Wars Episode VII” is now up and running in the UK, and in addition to the table reads of the script, there are final decisions being made now about wardrobe and the on-screen appearance of the characters. That means screen tests. That means fitting sessions.
And, evidently, that means Bob Iger gets to hang out with Chewbacca, according to the official Instagram account for the film.
On the one hand, it's nice to see that Chewbacca looks pretty much exactly like Chewbacca. On the other hand, I'm curious if he's really going to still be rocking the exact same shoulder strap thing a full 30 years after the end of “Return Of The Jedi.” Admittedly, Chewbacca always pretty much looks the same, like when he toured with his production of “Hamlet,” pictured at the top of this story. The one thing I really don't want from “Star Wars” is for it to feel like it's been stuck in stasis during the entire time these characters have been off-screen.
Look, Disney and Lucasfilm are up against it here. If they shake things up too much, people will freak out. If it feels like they're doing a theme park version of what we've already seen, people will freak out. There's almost no way they will hit the mark for every viewer, since I'm not sure most viewers can even articulate exactly what it is they want from these new movies.
In the end, the one thing this picture tells me is that Peter Mayhew is definitely playing the Chewbacca that i grew to love over the course of three full films. If Han Solo's role is primarily in the first film of this new trilogy, then it goes to follow that the same is true of Chewbacca. So enjoy this view, folks. No idea how many more times we'll get to see it.
“Star Wars: Episode VII” will be in theaters December 18, 2015.