Chewbacca has been with us for 40 years. We first got to love him as the Wookie pal to Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Peter Mayhew is now 72. Ok, I feel old now.
During the shooting for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mayhew had young actor Joonas Suotamo take over some of the performance.
Now Suotamo will take over the role completely in the upcoming untiled Han Solo film directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie).
Suotamo just tweeted a lovely message to Star Wars fans about his role in the film, as reported by io9.
I'm ecstatic. It's official. And here is my statement to this terrific piece of news https://t.co/a1DPsNDb2P pic.twitter.com/r4EUZ2r17V
— Joonas Suotamo (@JoonasSuotamo) February 21, 2017