The official announcement “Star Wars: Episode VIII Now Filming” includes a list of returning cast members.
Star War: Episode 8 “welcomes back cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis. New cast members will include Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro, Academy Award nominee Laura Dern, and talented newcomer Kelly Marie Tran.”
Conspicuously absent is the actor inside Chewbacca’s “walking carpet” suit, Peter Mayhew.
And now Mayhew has taken to Twitter to promise a “big announcement,” sweetening the deal with pages from his original draft of an early Star Wars script:
Starting today I'll post a few pages from my original @StarWars script each day leading up to a big announcement. pic.twitter.com/ReXI4hyQo1
— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) February 17, 2016
While we don’t yet know what Mayhew’s big announcement will be, a safe bet is his retirement from the Star Wars universe. It seems probable that Star Wars: Episode 7 The Force Awakens will be his last movie as Chewbacca.
This is not our first indication of a looming Chewbacca transition. Finnish basketball player Joonas Suotamo filled the Chewbacca suit for several of the more intensive action sequences in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
