Chewbacca Finally Got The Medal He Deserves — But Why?

Justice for Chewie! Our favorite Wookiee has finally gotten his medal.

Woven between the massive CGI effects and heavy emotional beats of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it could seem like a simple gesture: after Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) returns from a mission, space pirate and Resistance fighter Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o) gives him a medal of honor. But the scene has been more than 40 years in the making, bringing Chewie’s Star Wars journey full circle. 

In 1977’s A New Hope, Leia (Carrie Fisher) awards Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) medals of honor commemorating their victory against the Galactic Empire. But Chewbacca (then played by Peter Mayhew) was notably snubbed in the ceremony, even though he was Han’s right-hand Wookiee and instrumental to the Rebel Alliance’s efforts to take down the Death Star. 

Though it is worth noting that Chewie does get a medal after the fact in the Star Wars books, this is a moment fans have waited to see on-screen for decades. When Mayhew died earlier this year, the debate over Chewie’s missing medal was sparked once again. When Australia’s Bmag asked Mayhew about the slight (the interview was unearthed by CinemaBlend in 2015), he said it was a matter of finances and height differences. 

“I think it was one of two reasons,” Mayhew said. “One, they didn’t have enough money to buy me a medal. Or two, Carrie [Fisher] couldn’t reach my neck, and it was probably too expensive to build a little step so that I could step down or she could step up and give me the medal.”

The logistics have clearly been hammered out, though, and any doubts over the Wookiee’s notable contributions to the world of Star Wars have been more than cleared up. Like his friends, Chewbacca’s lasting legacy now has the medal to match.