One of my favorite TV shows is Star Wars: Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. I watch it for many reasons. The animation, the stories and just to relive being a kid. A recent announcement about the show has made me now go “fanboy” over the show, and my fiance’ may reconsider marrying me for her own sanity.

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This isn’t anything really new. Anthony Daniels, who played C-3P0 in the movies, is a regular character on the animated show. But in the last few episodes they have stepped up the story in a way that makes me go all giddy. Recently they had Liam Neeson and Pernilla August, reprise their roles of Qui-gon Jinn and Shimi Skywalker in a few episodes. This was enough to get me all hyped up, but the recent announcement of another character has made me go totally off the edge. Chewbacca is making an appearance on the show and they have brought back Peter Mayhew, the 7’ 3” actor, to reprise his role on the animated series.

According to Dave Filoni, Supervising Director of the show, Peter Mayhew told the artists to “study the way I walk, my mannerisms and demeanor.” Dave went on to say, “To understand Chewie, you need to understand Peter”. Artists also went into the Lucasfilm archives to study some of the original Chewie costumes to get details that would be used in the animation. But in addition to Peter helping with the look and feel of animating the character, they also added another element. Peter’s voice, helping recreate Chewie’s growl.

In the Homing Beacon Newsletter Peter Mayhew said "The Chewbacca sounds were sourced from the same bank as the original films, but Dave Filoni and Matt Wood (who is the voice of various Battle Droids and General Grevious) thought it would be nice to get a small sample of my voice mixed in”. Peter went on to say "This goes back to everyone at Lucasfilm feeling that they needed me to portray the character in every way possible. After so many years of being asked to do the growl for fans, I've found that I'm actually quite good at it. I'm absolutely thrilled to be part of the series. The animation is amazing, and they really captured the essence of Chewie. As soon as I saw it I said 'that's it. He's there. That's Chewbacca.”

I’ve always been a Star Wars fan, ever since my sister Kathy took me to see Episode IV at a drive in back in the summer of 1977. I was 7 years old, in my PJs and restless till I saw those 11 words come up on the screen. To this day,I’m still a big fan! Ask my co-workers and they will tell you how I use Star Wars references in everyday conversations, And I even call my daughter “Padawan”. So yeah, this is how “fanboy” I am. But this has also made me feel like a kid again. And I am not going to miss this episode.

Chewbacca will make his Clone Wars debut in the one-hours Season Three finale, airing on Friday, April 1st at 8pm on Cartoon Network. If you would like to see a clip of Chewie’s return, you can find it here on the StarWars.com website, along with many full episodes and commentary videos.

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