Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might have become one of the most divisive films in the franchise with its mixed-negative critic reviews, but the controversial Star Wars movie managed to get one thing right – correcting that one big error in the original Star Wars trilogy.
For years, fans have been talking about how Chewbacca got snubbed during the medal ceremony at the very end of the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope. The Rebellion decides to award the heroes responsible for destroying the Death Star in the movie and in the ceremony fans can see Chewie walking down the aisle together with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford). All three were supposed to be awarded, but Princess Leia only places medals around the necks of Han and Luke while Chewbacca watches.
The Rise of Skywalker finally rights this wrong when Maz Kanata hands out a medal to Chewbacca, one that could have belonged to either Luke or to Han.
Speaking in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, sequel trilogy Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo reacts to this moment in the film, saying that he was glad that Chewie finally got his medal.
"I was celebrating," he says. "It was the greatest thing. The whole ending weaves together all the storylines one last time, and it was wonderful to see that happen. It was also great to have the Maz character do it because Chewie and Maz seem to have this history together. Hopefully, we'll learn something more about that in the future on some other story, but, yeah, I just really enjoyed how that played out."
Episode IX might not be a perfect movie, but it certainly got that moment right. The film manages to bring things full circle, correcting one of the biggest errors in Star Wars history.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently screening in cinemas.
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