By George Bate
Joonas Suotamo, the Finnish actor who took over from the legendary Peter Mayhew to play Chewbacca in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and Solo: A Star Wars Story, recently wrote a book about his experiences in a galaxy far, far away. The book, titled “Roar! My Life as a Wookiee”, which reveals some interesting tidbits about the behind the scenes process on the sequel trilogy.
In the book, Suotamo details a cut scene from The Rise of Skywalker that readers or Rae Carson’s excellent novel adaption should be familiar with, in which Kylo Ren tortures and interrogates Chewie. The Finnish Tähtien Jatkosota describes Suotamo’s writing on the scene, saying:
“The torture scene in TROS (as seen in the Art book) was actually filmed. And was very tough for Joonas. Adam Driver was ‘truly sociopathic’ in the role. Joonas wonders if the scene came out too extreme for SW or if it didn’t fit to show Kylo hit so dark before turning light.”
While it would have been extremely interesting to see Kylo torturing Chewbacca, who was like an uncle figure to him growing up given the Wookiee’s closeness with Han Solo, it does ultimately make sense why it was cut. Going from torturing a beloved character to being redeemed himself would have perhaps been too jarring for audiences, and would run the risk of fans not being on his side when Ben Solo returns.
Tweets courtesy of @tahtienjatko. Images courtesy of Disney and Lucasfilm