IS CHEWBACCA A BIGFOOT?

Chewbacca, not Matilda

This discussion arises when people discuss Matilda and the fact that people have dismissed the photos and videos of her as being a Chewbecca mask. And there are those who agree there is a similarity, but that's because there are bigfoot who look like Chewbecca. And then they throw out the comment like it's engraved in stone : You know George Lucas based Chewie on bigfoot.

In a word, no.

George Lucas never claimed that he based Wookiees on sasquatch.  Yes, there are similarities. They are both tall, hair covered bipeds. They both tend to live in among trees. (Wookiees inhabit jungles, sasquatch forests). And both are noted to be incredibly strong.


When asked, Lucas explained that as he was trying to figure out who was going to be Han Solo's Star Wars co-pilot, he was struck with the idea of how his dog Indiana, an Alaskan Malamute, was the "co-pilot" in the car whenever he went somewhere. So the decision to make the character a non-human fur-covered creature was formed. Thank goodness he did not stop there, or critics of the movies would have been shouting things about "Scooby snacks" at the big screen.

It is said that to finish the creation of the character, habits and attributes of lemurs and orangutans were included. So although there appears to be some resemblance to a bigfoot, that was not Lucas's intention.

There is a Florida cryptozoologist who argues that "Wookie" comes from a North American Indian term for a bigfoot. There is no evidence to support that claim. Lucas himself said the name originated in his first motion picture "THX 1138". In a line that an actor ad-libbed : "I think I just ran over a wookiee on the expressway."

Nancy


"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."