The Official Star
Wars Site has announced that Episode III will further connect
the Star Wars saga, bridging the prequel trilogy to the
original trilogy in new and surprising ways. As such, familiar faces
and places will return in this new Star Wars film, which is
currently in pre-production.
Reprising their classic roles from the original trilogy are
actors Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker. They return to
Star Wars as Chewbacca the Wookiee, C-3PO and R2-D2.
"I'm delighted to return as Chewbacca," says Mayhew.
"I think his re-appearance in this film is a fitting way to tie
the whole saga together, especially for Wookiee fans." Given
that Chewbacca is a sprightly 200 years old in Episode IV, he is
more than old enough to fit into the prequel timeline.
Daniels has played See-Threepio in all of the Star Wars
movies. In the original trilogy, he squeezed into the tight confines
of the golden suit to play the prim and proper protocol droid. For
Episode I, he leant his vocal talents for an incomplete version of
Threepio that was realized as a puppet. In Episode II, he returned
to the costume, donning an earlier and less polished iteration of
the droid's familiar form.
Though the role of R2-D2 has become increasingly automated since
the very start, it's been a Star Wars tradition to include
Kenny Baker as the heroic astromech droid at some point in the
movie. Baker was essential to the early Artoo seen in A New Hope,
when limitations in remote control and computer technology required
a person beneath the dome to bring Artoo to life. Having Baker
inside the suit has brought "an element of humanity" to
the classic character, Director George Lucas has said.