Star Wars Actor Honors Carrie Fisher on International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! March 8th is a day to celebrate the ladies of the world, so many people have taken to social media to honor their wives, daughters, friends, and even favorite celebrities and fictional characters. Some folks are even celebrating their co-workers, including Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo. The actor clearly loves being a part of the Star Wars franchise, often writing about the movies on Twitter with posts ranging from kind words about his predecessor to supportive posts about his castmates. Suotamo’s latest post is a tribute to the late, great Carrie Fisher.

“Happy #InternationalWomensDay. My hero,” Suotamo wrote with a photo of himself giving Fisher a giant hug. Many people commented on the post: “‘No one is ever really gone,’” @MentorSkywalker quoted. “‘To me, she’s royalty,’” @simon_lindsell added. “Joonas you made me cry,” @missporgy replied. “Always in our hearts,” @greysoka wrote. You can check out the image Suotamo shared in the post below:

This past December marked three years since Fisher passed away, and she received a lot of love from her Star Wars family and real family on social media. Mark Hamill, who played Fisher’s on-screen brother for decades, shared some touching fan art on the anniversary of her death. Billie Lourd, Fisher’s daughter, also posted a heartfelt musical tribute in honor of her mother.

As for Suotamo, the actor recently welcomed his second child into the world. Despite referring to her as “Bacca” in the post, it turns out he did NOT name his child after Chewbacca.

Currently, The Rise of Skywalker is up on Rotten Tomatoes with the worst critics’ score for a live-action Star Wars movie, earning a surprising 52%. However, the film is fairing better with moviegoers and currently has an 86% audience score. ComicBook.com’s own Patrick Cavanaugh called the movie “a mixed bag of delights and frustrations that largely succeeds” and gave it a 4 out of 5 rating.

Despite the mixed reviews, The Rise of Skywalker still managed to walk away with three Academy Award nominations this year. The movie was up for Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound Editing (Matthew Wood and David Acord), and Best Visual Effects (Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy).

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released on Digital on March 17th, and on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 31st.