Peter Mayhew revealing pages from original Star Wars script – leading to a big announcement

Here at Flickreel, we love Chewbacca. And that means we love the actor who has portrayed him since 1977’s original Star Wars movie, Peter Mayhew – and he’s given us another reason to appreciate his Wookie antics.

Back when Mayhew was cast for George Lucas’ Star Wars, the screenplay pages he received from the director were very different. And now the actor has declared that he will be tweeting pages from that early draft every day, leading up to ‘a big announcement’:

https://twitter.com/TheWookieeRoars/status/700102566688862211/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

As you can see from Mayhew’s photos, the structure of the eventual Star Wars we know and love is in place: the opening scrawl, the love / hate relationship between C-3P0 and R2-D2, etc – but the details are all very different. We wonder if this draft’s title, ‘The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from Journal of the Whills (Saga 1) STAR WARS’, was a bit of a mouthful. Also, here’s the official press release concerning the release of the pages:

‘London, England – February 17, 2016 – Peter Mayhew, the actor that has portrayed Chewbacca in the Star Wars franchise since it’s inception in 1977, is releasing his original script that he received in 1976 for Star Wars to celebrate the start of filming on Episode VIII.  Peter will be releasing a few pages on his Twitter each day. On the final day of the release of the script Peter will pair it with a big announcement.

The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the‘Journal of the Whills’” by George Lucas reads completely different from what Star Wars Episode IV eventually became.  Peter’s script along with Peter’s wookiee coffee thumbprints and notes scrawled on the pages are a treat to read and brings us back to the root of what made Star Wars great.’

While these insights are absolute gold for Star Wars acolyte and the more casual film fan alike, what we’re even more intrigued by is Mayhew’s ‘big announcement’. What could it be? Following some health problems, the actor may be announcing his retirement from the Wookie suit – but we feel that seems like a bit of let-down. Will it be a reveal about something to do with Episode VIII, which is now filming?

We’ll have to wait and see when Mayhew has finished tweeting those pages. check back here at Flickreel for more updates. In the meantime, enjoy reading those script nuggets at Mayhew’s Twitter page.