The lovable wookie looks unchanged after all these years

May 5, 2014 16:17 GMT  ·  By

What Star Wars fans never knew is that wookies age very gracefully, at least that is the conclusion one can draw from the photo that can be considered the first look at the lovable character Chewbacca, Han Solo's right hand, whose growls and grunts only he understood.

At least that's what one might think after looking at the photo shared on the Star Wars official Instagram page that was published yesterday, May 4, a day widely regarded as Star Wars Day. In the photo, fans can see Chewie, as he's sometimes affectionately called, sitting next to Disney chairman and CEO, Bob Iger.

The caption on the snap reads, “Chairman's new co-pilor. #StarWarsDay,” and many suspected that inside the Chewbacca costume was Peter Mayhew, the man who played the part in the original movies. He was rumored to be returning to the film last month, when he suddenly pulled out of a series of appearances he was supposed to make for conventions that coincided with the filming schedule of the latest movie.

J.J. Abrams has gotten many from the old gang back together, including Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamil. As you might have guessed, all of them have aged significantly in real life, so it's going to be hard to explain how Chewbacca has preserved his youthful and furry self.

It's been revealed that the action for “Episode VII” is going to be set 30 years in the future, after the events of the original trilogy ended, so unless wookies live an incredible amount of time, someone had better begin to dye Chewie's fur a whiter shade, or at least give some split ends.