I HAVE never watched The Clone Wars cartoon series, but that didn’t stop me smiling when I found out the finale of the current season will feature an appearance from Chewbacca.

Everyone’s favourite Wookie helps young Jedi Knight Ahsoka when she is hunted on a Trandoshan moon by bounty hunters, but who really cares? It’s just great to see the big lug again.

For those not in the know, Chewbacca has been dead for a while in Star Wars mythology, having being killed off in the 1999 Expanded Universe novel Vector Prime, saving the life of Han and Leia‘s son, Anakin. (Saying that, it took a moon being smashed into a planet to do it!)

That – at the time – shock move came about in response to criticisms that the main Star Wars characters were protected by some kind of force field – that readers knew no harm would come to them.

I’ve read alot of EU fiction and while it has it’s shortcomings (which I will be blogging about soon), that decision was not one of them.

Having said that, he and Han Solo are my favourite characters from the original films.

Along with … ummmm … everyone else who has seen a Star Wars film, I’ve made Chewie noises, so seeing anything new that features him is a win in my eyes.

I’d add that I’m 39 now and one of my dreams is still to go on an all-night booze-fest with Han and Chewie, so seeing the walking carpet reappear here gives me some hope that that may happen (even if it is only in my mind).