With so many rumours and assumptions flying around the filming of Episode VII, it’s really been like pulling teeth for news outlets to get any official confirmations from the studio on what’s going on. Today The Hollywood Reporter posted that Peter Mayhew has been confirmed to reprise his role as Chewbacca in the new movie. If Chewie is in the film, it can’t be too long before Disney confirms Ford’s involvement as well, right? Right?
Either way, having Chewie back is good news for fans of the original films (right? I mean, he was in Revenge which was the best of the three prequels for me) and after Abrams’ twitter confirmation of the triumphant return of R2-D2, it does seem one step closer to an official announcement that they are indeed getting the band back together. Filming has apparently already begun filming, without having a main cast locked in it would appear, but it could just be location shots, 2nd unit stuff, R2 spinning around in circles or who knows what.
Comments in the chatroom indicated to me that the news of Chewbacca’s return may be received negatively from die hard fans of the EU, of which I am not. Who knows, maybe he’ll be come back as a cyborg like so many before him. I’m wondering when the news that Boba Fett is returning will break…