Peter Mayhew | 1944 - 2019

By: Benjamin Hart

Today we are incredibly saddened to report the passing of the legendary Peter Mayhew at the age of 74.

Peter was best known to Star Wars fans the world over as the man underneath the mask of the mighty Chewbacca. He wore the fur of the iconic Wookiee many times over the course of almost 40 years. Peter Mayhew's family confirmed via social media that the actor passed away on April 30th. You can read their official statement below:

Peter has been with Star Wars saga since the very beginning, portraying Chewbacca 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope alongside Harrison Ford(Han Solo) Mark Hamill(Luke Skywalker), and Carrie Fisher(Princess Leia), among others. Mayhew would return to the role in the sequels The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, and the third prequel Revenge Of The Sith.

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Joonas Suotamo Is Bringing 'Solo' Content To Disney's Galactic Nights

By: Benjamin Hart

This Memorial Day weekend is going to be huge for Star Wars fans! Not only will Solo: A Star Wars Story be opening in theaters on that Friday, on Sunday Galactic Nights will be returning to Walt Disney World in epic fashion.

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Video: Adam Savage Goes Undercover As Chewbacca At Silicon Valley Comic Con

By: Benjamin Hart

Former Mythbusters star Adam Savage has become a legend among geeks everywhere for his contagious passion for filmmaking, costuming and collecting. On his YouTube channel, Tested, Savage has made a tradition out of wearing incredible costumes at comic conventions and challenging his fans to spot him in the crowd. Last year he walked the showfloor of San Diego Comic Con as Kylo Ren, and just last month he visited Silicon Valley Comic Con dressed as a familiar walking carpet.

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New Details On Chewbacca, Bossk & More For Battlefront's Death Star DLC

By: Benjamin Hart

The next big expansion coming to Star Wars Battlefront is the new Death Star DLC, which will allows players to fight inside the iconic battlestation, as well as outside it in space. We have been getting a lot of teases about this new expansion pack, and now with it's release coming very soon, EA is ready to spill the beans on everything it will include. We're getting a new trailer on Friday, but a ton of details just dropped on EA's official site.

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'Chewbacca Lady' Gets Her Own Hasbro Action Figure

By Ciaran Duggan,

The fame of Candace Payne, better known as the 'Chewbacca Lady', has now risen to new levels. On Friday, Mrs. Payne posted a Periscope video of her receiving a new Hasbro Toy. The toy has been modeled as the 'Chewbacca Lady'. You can take a look at the video, which was posted on Facebook, down below:

The above video has been trending on Facebook this past weekend and has already received over 1 million views on the social media server. It has been exactly a month since Payne posted her famous 'Chewbacca Mask' video and since then, her fame has risen exponentially. She guested on James Corden's Late Late Show in America, alongside J.J. Abrams; spent a week, as an official guest, at Disney World and had an official showing around the Facebook HQ. 

I guess we should look at this as one of the 'great' social media stories. A mother of two posted a video of her putting on a Chewbacca Mask, which went viral. She has now become a cultural icon and is receiving gifts, as though she was royalty. I never want to sound envious about these things because it is such an amazing story, but it does make you wonder how far this will go? 

In a way, Hasbro should be thanking Mrs. Payne because there is no doubt in my mind, she has helped them generate sizable profits through the incremental sales of the 'Chewbacca Mask'. However, as with many things in our current media world, all fairy tales will eventually come to an end. The story of today is not necessarily the interest of tomorrow. I would say that Mrs. Payne should enjoy her time in the public spotlight, because I predict that public interest will soon fade, as fame is transient and non-sustaining. 

It may not be tomorrow or next month or in six months, but I wonder if this story will have as much traction in a year's time.

Source: Facebook

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Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew & More Headed To London For Star Wars Celebration

By: Benjamin Hart

Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 is just around the corner and the celebrity guest list just grew exponentially! While guest announcements have been trickling out in past weeks and months, Lucasfilm and Reedpop have just confirmed four new big name attendees.

Anthony Daniels, the man behind the mask of C-3PO in all seven live action Star Wars films and more, will be making the journey to London next month. Along with him will be Peter Mayhew, the mighty Chewbacca himself, Jeremy Bulloch, Boba Fett in Episodes V & VI, and Daniel Logan, who portrayed young Boba Fett in Attack Of The Clones and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Other special guests at this Celebration include Kathleen Kennedy, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Gareth Edwards and Dave Filoni.

Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 takes place July 15th - 17th at the Excel Exhibition Centre in London!

Source: Star Wars Celebration

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Preview Of 'Han Solo #1' Comic Revealed

By: Benjamin Hart

In case you haven't heard, our beloved scruffy looking Nerf herder is getting his own comic series this month! Star Wars: Han Solo #1 is set to hit newsstands and Comic Book stores on June 15th, and the first preview has just dropped courtesy of Comic Book Resources.

This series is set between the events of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and focuses on Han as he begins to step away from working with the Rebellion and back into his old life of smuggling. But it doesn't take long for Solo to get wrapped up in a secret Rebel rescue mission, and an infamous starship race. You can check out several pages from the first issue below, along with some variant cover art:

Star Wars: Han Solo is written by Marjorie Liu with penciling by Mark Brooks and cover art by Lee Bermejo. Look for issue #1 anywhere where comics are sold on June 15th!

Source: Comic Book Resources

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11 Minutes Of 'Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Gameplay Revealed

By: Benjamin Hart

We are now just days away from from the release of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the latest installment in he much beloved video game series. More and more teases from the game are continuing to leak out, and the latest one comes to us from IGN.

On their YouTube channel, IGN shared eleven minutes of never before seen gameplay from the game, which retells the events of the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens in iconic and hilarious Lego fashion. The footage is narrated by TT Games associate producer Tim Wileman and features gameplay set inside Han Solo's freighter Eravana. In the level, players must utilize an assortment of characters, such as Han, Chewie, BB-8, Rey and Finn, to work their way through the various puzzles and entrapments, all the while fighting off Kanjiklub members, Guavian Enforcers and Rathars. Wileman confirms in the video that several of the actors from the film returned to provide dialogue for their characters in the game, which you can hear in the gameplay. Check out the footage below:



Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set for release on June 28th and will be available on a variety of platforms, including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita and Microsoft Windows.

Source: IGN(YouTube)

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Chewbacca Visits A School In County Kerry, Ireland

By: Benjamin Hart

Over the past few weeks we've been getting numerous reports about the production of Star Wars: Episode VIII that is currently happening in Ireland. Filming has recently been taking place along the coastline of the country at such locations as Malin Head and Ceann Sibéal. In doing so, members of the cast and crew have been spotted in various locations. Carrie Fisher is said to be in the area, and other members of the cast, including Mark Hamill, we're seen at an airport recently.

But so far the most notable cast member appearance happened at a school in County Kerry just a few days ago. The BBC reports that none other than the mighty Chewbacca himself made a surprise appearance to schoolchildren at the Scoil Fheirtearaigh National School in Ballyferriter this past Monday. According to Movie Bit and at tweet they found, it appears the actor in the suit is none other than Joonas Suotamo.

Suotamo portrayed Chewie alongside Peter Mayhew in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and doubled for the legendary actor in the more strenuous action scenes that Mayhew could not perform.

The principal of the school, Mairín Ní Chartúir, spoke briefly about how the Wookiee's visit came to be:

"We received a call from the production team asking could they pay a surprise visit to the kids on Monday. Of course, we said yes and were told to not let anyone know about the visit and the parents were told on Monday that the kids would be staying an hour later for the surprise. Chewbacca walked in with the production team and took photos with the children and watched them perform the Star Wars theme tune that the kids had learned, as we are quite a musical school."

You can watch video from the event below:



Star Wars: Episode VIII opens in theaters on December 15th, 2017!

Sources: BBC, The Movie Bit
Via: Making Star Wars

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Chewbacca Mask Lady Becomes Most-Watched Facebook 'Live Video' Of All Time

By Ciaran Duggan,

Three days ago Candace Payne uploaded a Facebook video which immediately captured the world's imagination. Mrs. Payne is shown wearing a "talking" Chewbacca mask and laughs in a hysterical manner throughout the video. 

According to Entertainment Weekly, this video has quickly become the most-watched Facebook Live video of all time, with over 117 million views. Take a look at this video down below:

It's hard not to see why one cannot smile at the reaction of Mrs. Payne. Since the video has gone viral, Mrs. Payne had this to say to her Facebook followers:

"Today has been a whirlwind. I'm grateful for every kind of word and comment even if I haven't replied. Y'all. OVERWHELMED with gratitude. Let's keep belly laughing again. Never imagined finding my 'simple joy' would land me more VIEWS on a little FB video than Mark Zuckerberg has followers. INSANE. Find your 'simple you'! Good Day. Now Good Night. It's all love."

Since Payne's statement on Friday, the Chewbacca mask product has been purchased by consumers on a grand scale. EW states that:

- Major retailers have run out of stock of the product

- Amazon are asking for c. $200 per item of the stock they have left.

What do you make of the response of this video on social media? Leave your comments and thoughts about the video (and its reaction) down below.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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Scientists Name New Species of Weevil After Chewbacca

By: Dominic Jones

A team of researchers discovered several new species of Trigonopterus Fauvel recently and chose to name one of them after everyone's favorite Wookiee, Chewbacca!  The new weevil's were discovered by scientists Matthew H. Van Dam, Raymond Laufa, Alexander Riedel, after spending ten days on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. 

The explained their decision to name the Weevil after Chewie in their paper announcing the finds, published in ZooKeys last week, saying that,

This epithet is a noun in apposition and based on the likeable fictional character Chewbacca in George Lucas’ Star Wars movies, portrayed primarily by Peter Mayhew. This species has dense scales on the head and the legs, which reminds the authors of Chewbacca’s dense fur."

Though they share the name Chewbacca, the Trigonopterus chewbacca and Wookiees don't have much in common.  For starters, the Trigonopterus chewbacca is only about 2.78 to 3.13 mm long, whereas Peter Mayhew is 2.21 m tall.

This isn't the first time a species has been named after a Star Wars character.  Last March researchers named a new species of cat fish after the bounty hunter Greedo, in 2012 a spider was named after the Sarlacc pit, and in 1996 a species of tree mites were named after Darth Vader.  (If you're interested in more species named after Star Wars characters, Live Science has a fun list here).

Sources: ZooKeys, USA Today

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Three Clips From 'The Force Awakens' Officially Released

By: Benjamin Hart

Now is is the time to once again get hyped for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens as it's coming to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD in just a little over a week's time! In preparation we've been seeing a lot of promotion for The Force Awakens. So far we've gotten trailers and clips for the behind the scenes content, new looks at deleted scenes and featurettes, and even Harrison Ford has been making the rounds promoting the upcoming release. In addition to that, three new high definition clips from the film have surfaced online courtesy of Fandango. They include the now infamous "Tell that to Kanjiklub" scene, Rey bypassing the compressing in the Millennium Falcon, and Han and Finn's hilarious "That's not how the Force works" moment. You can watch all of them below:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is due for release on Digital HD on April 1st and Blu-ray and DVD on April 5th! You can find more details about that here.

Source: Fandango
Via: Star Wars News Net

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'The Force Awakens' Wins Favorite Movie at Kids Choice Awards

By: Dominic Jones

The Force Awakens won big at last night's Kids Choice Awards, picking up the "Favorite Movie" award.  The film beat out other nominees Jurrasic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2.  Chewbacca and BB-8 were on hand to accept the award on behalf of the cast and crew.  You can check out that video here.  Unfortunately, the film didn't win for any of the other categories it was nominated for, including Favorite Movie Actress (Daisy Ridley) and Favorite Movie Actor (John Boyega).  Regardless, it was still an exciting night for Star Wars!

Congrats to the cast and crew of The Force Awakens on their win!

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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J.J. Abrams Explains Why Chewbacca Didn't Hug Leia At The End Of 'The Force Awakens'

By: Benjamin Hart

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens was met with almost universal praise upon its release, but it did not escape spurring some controversy among viewers. One scene that left a lot of fans scratching their heads was when the Millennium Falcon returned to the Resistance Base at the end of the film. Those paying attention will notice that Chewbacca exits the Falcon and awkwardly walks past Leia while tending to Finn. Leia then has an emotional hug with Rey. Due to this scene closely following the death of Han Solo, many fans questioned why Leia and Chewie did not embrace one another after the loss of someone that was so close to both of them.

Thankfully Director, producer and co-writer J.J. Abrams has finally set the record straight. Abrams recently spoke with /Film about the scene and gave some interesting insight into why it played out the way it did:

"That was probably one of the mistakes I made in that. My thinking at the time was that Chewbacca, despite the pain he was feeling, was focused on trying to save Finn and getting him taken care of. So I tried to have Chewbacca go off with him and focus on Rey, and then have Rey find Leia and Leia find Rey. The idea being that both of them being strong with the Force and never having met, would know about each other — that Leia would have been told about her beyond what we saw onscreen and Rey of course would have learned about Leia. And that reunion would be a meeting and a reunion all in one, and a sort of commiseration of their mutual loss... Had Chewbacca not been where he was, you probably wouldn’t have thought of it. But because he was right there, passed by Leia, it felt almost like a slight, which was definitely not the intention."

It's great to hear Abrams discuss the scene and be willing to admit that it was indeed a mistake, albiet and understandable one. I can definitely see how, from a production point of view, how that moment would be difficult to put together. At the end of the day I don't see it as a glaring blemish on the film itself, but merely just something to think about.

The story will continue in Star Wars: Episode VIII, which hits theaters December 15th, 2017!

Source: /Film

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