Chewbacca was always an interesting character in the Star Wars films, simultaneously playing the doggo in a man’s best friend trope with Han Solo, yet also being an accomplished engineer, warrior, and starship designer.
So while the shaggy man-dog always made his famous “RrraaRRrggghlll” noises that sounded like gibberish, he was often saying some pretty deep stuff, man. Portrayed as Han’s loyal dog companion and co-pilot, Chewie was actually dropping gems of knowledge the whole time.
In this article, we’ve interpreted 6 of the best Chewbacca quotes in context.
#1 When Leia kisses Luke
Wookiees have a keen sense of smell, and research suggests that canines are able to recognize siblings through DNA scents. If Chewbacca’s nose had picked up familial DNA scents on Luke and Leia, seeing them kiss must’ve surely been perplexing.
After Chewie’s urgles, Han says “ok then” and walks off just as perplexed, so it’s likely he caught words like “brother” and “sister” in Chewie’s dialogue, but wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at the time.
#2 Whenever he’s accused of cheating at Dejarik
It might be under the threat of violence that Chewbacca’s opponents let him win, but Finn and Poe have a different theory as to Chewie’s gameplay strategy – the wookie is simply cheating.
Upon the accusation of cheating, Chewie lets out a furious yell, which was his way of saying “beat me and I’ll rip off your arms, accuse me of cheating and I’ll rip off your heads!”.
Chewbacca was a known table game lover, and often accompanied Han Solo to various dice and card games in shady smuggler coves. Until 2017 various casinos in real life had commercial licenses from Lucasfilm for authentic Star Wars slot machines, but the Disney company has since removed those games from circulation.
It’s no longer possible to find any licensed Star Wars casino games, but you can play some great sci-fi themed slots at Casumo, an online casino in NZ.
#3 When Han Solo orders him around
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a grayed Han Solo has no time for babysitting Ren and Finn, even if Ren knew her way around a starship’s hyperdrive. At one point Han casually orders Chewie to pack the kids into a pod and drop them off on the next safe planet, but Chewie’s response sounds something like “ahh go eff yourself old man”.
Chewbacca might feel a life debt to Han, but he’s nobody’s butler.
#4 Chewie’s meltdown aboard the Millennium Falcon
As the crew escapes Cloud City, it’s revealed that the hyperdrive manipulator has malfunctioned yet again, just after getting repairs, thanks to Imperial sabotage. Chewie’s reaction is about what you’d expect from a pilot in such a situation, with a lot of angry arm flailing, pushing inept mechanics out of the way, and banging things with hammers.
#5 That old man is mad!
In the film, Chewie gurgles something to which Han replies “Boy, you said it Chewie”, but on-set Peter Mayhew had said “That old man is mad!”. By this time in Star Wars canon, Chewbacca was over 200 years old, and had seen a lot of crazy stuff in his day. But an old man charging headlong to disable the Death Star, it really took the cake.
#6 Where the hell has Han been?
In Star Wars: he Empire Strikes Back, Chewie is sitting all by his lonesome self doing some repair welding on top of a starship. Han Solo strolls into the joint like a bigshot, and Chewie is none too pleased. He appears to have some choice words for Han, which could likely be translated along the lines of “You lazy pos bum, where the hell have you been, I should weld your flipping eyes shut!”
Han promises he’ll come right back to help out, a smart thing to do because he knew darn well that Chewie was about to go Hostel on his face with that welding torch.
