EP3: Peter Mayhew Talks Episode III Posted By Scott on June 10, 2003
Ashley B. sent in this possible (and totally unconfirmed) spoiler. Highlight to read!
I attended the Walt Disney Star Wars Weekend at MGM Studios, Orlando, on Sunday the 8th of June. The celebrity guests were Jeremy Bullock and Peter Mayhew. At 2pm they had a 'Questions and Answers' session with the two stars. About 200 people attended inside the ABC on-site cinema. Anyway, out of this session came this very VERY interesting piece of info from Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca in EP3).
He confirmed he will be returning as Chewbacca. The interviewer, whos name was Brian Stone I believe, pushed Mayhew a little further into what Chewies role will be in Episode 3. Mayhew seemed pretty uncomfortable at that point, sitting forward in his chair. In a much quieter voice he announced to the audience, and this is almost a straight quote as me and my partner remember it, "Chewbacca rescues and delivers the two children to Ben Kenobi". He then sat back in his chair and refused to commit any more.
So I hope this is of some interest to you. And as we wondered the park that afternoon, one thing seemed to back up Mayhews info. Chewbacca and Obi-Wan Kenobi seem to already know each other in the Cantina in A New Hope. Perhaps this falls into place? What other reason would Chewie be in EP3 if not to show a connection to Kenobi?
We don't have any confirmation on the above, but it's certainly a great idea.
UPDATE We did some digging and some cross-referencing of the information we were given and found out there might not be as much to be excited about as we originally thought.
Only a select few people have seen the script - and at this point we highly doubt that Peter is on that short list. While he may have been told about his scenes, we're confident he's been told he is in and not much more. In addition to that other people there assured us the above report was not entirely accurate - in reality Peter said nothing of the kind and that the report was based on either something grossly misheard or misinterpreted when Peter talked about Chewbacca babysitting Han and Leia's twins in the early expanded universe novels.