George Lucas Says His Dog Indiana Inspired Chewbacca's Creation

Of all of the characters that have appeared in the Star Wars saga, few are as lovable as [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Of all of the characters that have appeared in the Star Wars saga, few are as lovable as Chewbacca. The trusty co-pilot of Han Solo and his unintelligible dialogue appeal to pet owners everywhere as Chewie feels like the embodiment of a family pet that could walk, talk, and fire a bowcaster. Not so surprisingly, George Lucas explained the inspiration of Chewbacca and confirmed many stories surrounding the Wookiees creation.

Chewbacca-Star-Wars
(Photo: Star Wars)

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Confirming a long-rumored story, Lucas shared, "The stories are all true, which is I had a large dog named Indiana. A malamute an Alaskan malamute, and he would ride around in the car, in the front seat. Not driving. I loved that image."

He continued to describe the inspiration, saying, "When he sat in the car, he was bigger than I was. That's where I said, 'That would be a fun character for Star Wars.'"

What makes this story so charming is that it also reveals that Lucas had a dog named Indiana, which was clearly an inspiration for a pivotal reveal in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery) explains that his son Henry Jr. (Harrison Ford) adopted the name "Indiana" from his dog. In the film, we even meet Indiana, who appears to be a malamute.

Lucas went on to explain his original intentions for Chewbacca and his Wookiee brethren, admitting, "Originally, the Wookiees were what the Ewoks became, which is they weren't technical at all, they were primitive. But then, as I moved along, I realized I had to cut the Wookiees out of the end of the movie, I decided to save one and make him the co-pilot. That's really how we ended up with his starring role."

Although there's no such thing as "too many Wookiees," but by making Chewbacca the sole Kashyyk-born creature helped make him such a unique alien, as he was so incredibly different from his human counterparts.

Do you wish we had seen more Wookiees earlier on in the franchise or are you glad we didn't meet them until Revenge of the Sith? Let us know in the comments!

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