20 pieces of trivia you need to know about Star Wars

NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 25: Chewbacca from Star Wars walks on the field before the start of a game between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on August 25, 2017 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Chewbacca almost wore shorts

After the scene in A New Hope where our heroes throw themselves into a trash compactor to save their skins, poor Chewbacca found it much harder to shake off the stink than the hairless members of the cast.

After the scene was filmed, the furry suit donned by actor Peter Mayhew reportedly kept a terrible smell for the rest of the shoot.

But what can you do when your body is covered with fur? Forgive us, Chewie, for imagining a Monsters Inc. decontamination scenario, complete with a Cone of Shame. It’s degrading.

The Chewbacca costume itself could have been entirely different, however, according to Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. Studio executives were reportedly unhappy with the fact that Chewie was ostensibly naked and tried to have the costume redesigned with shorts.

We think we can all agree that, even for a film trying to convince us that blue milk is a thing, Chewie in shorts is ridiculous. Let the Wookiee live without imposing our human concept of shame on him.

Peter Mayhew, who plays Chewbacca and was nearly forced into wearing shorts on top of his already perfectly acceptable costume, is more than 7 feet tall (7’3″ to be precise), and is even taller than his nearest rival, Darth Vader himself, David Prowse, who stands at 6’6″.

Both Mayhew and Prowse were given the choice of which character to play, but Mayhew wanted to play a good guy whereas Prowse fancied playing a villain, hence their respective roles. Mayhew was working in a hospital in Northern England when he auditioned and was cast 10 seconds after meeting George Lucas — all he had to do was stand up.