New Chewbacca Joonas Suotamo has a message for Star Wars fans Chewbacca, the Wookie companion to Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in the Star Wars films has been played by Peter Mayhew since the beginning. It’s been 40 years since Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and by the time we got to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the fan-beloved Mayhew had young actor Joonas Suotamo take over some of the performance.