Star Wars: Han Solo Movie's New Chewbacca Is A Finnish Basketball Player

Joonas Suotamo will replace Peter Mayhew for the new film.

Joonas Suotamo will replace series stalwart Peter Mayhew to play the Wookiee in the upcoming film. He actually already stood in for Mayhew in Star Wars: The Force Awakens' action scenes, but will now perform the role full-time. Before Episode VII, Suotamo was best known for playing basketball for Penn State Nittany Lions in the USA.

After being revealed as the new Chewbacca in a recent cast photo, the actor write a heartfelt tribute to Mayhew and Chewbacca on Instagram. "Chewbacca is one of the most iconic characters in the history of film," he said. "Peter's guidance and kindness have been invaluable gifts which warmed my spirit and prepared me for this journey. I aspire to make Peter proud and bring Star Wars fans the Chewie they know and love."

Suotamo finished his post by saying, "See you in a galaxy far, far away…"

In other Star Wars news, the untitled Han Solo spinoff recently added Woody Harrelson to the cast, which also includes Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo himself.

The film takes place during the "early scoundrel days" of Solo and Calrissian, before 1977's A New Hope. It is due out in 2018.

The newest Star Wars movie is Rogue One, which came out in December 2016. The next entry in the series is this December's Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-wars-han-solo-movies-new-chewbacca-is-a-finni/1100-6448095/

Here's a picture of Joonas I took of him last month at Comic Con:

Dude was real down to earth, and he was real easy to talk to.  When I wished him luck on his future endeavors, he responded sort of awkwardly which lead to another conversation on how tight-lipped he and cast members had to be in regards to current and future projects.  So he didn't want me to leave with a certain impression.  But let's just say that the more we spoke, the more we came to a mutual understaning on things.

I like it!
I know a lot of people hate replacing actors but it is bound to happen, Mayew is over 70 now. And since he's in costume it's not like you'll be seeing a different wookie at least :o

You might already know this, but both Mayhew and Soutamo was in The Force Awakens.  As you can logically assume, Mayhew played the less active parts while Soutamo played the more action scenes.  And here was Mayhew that day:

He was very nice but quiet.  It was probably due to the fact that that day was Carrie Fisher's funeral.  I shared him my condolences, and he seemed very appreciative over it.

I did know that there was another actor that played the more active scenes, just didn't know who it was! Glad to know that both actors seem like genuinely good people and I'm sure Mayew will be along for the ride as well by just being on set if he's available. Always nice to still be a part of it even when passing on!

Possible spoilerIll delet this lol because I dont know how to format this

Just Han.  Chewie flew Rey to see Luke at the end of the movie.

Amazing how much he looks just like the old Chewbacca.