It’s difficult to imagine the climax of Return of the Jedi without the Ewoks, the furry little aliens are now an iconic part of Star Wars history, but fans have proposed an even better alternative involving a Wookiee uprising.
That’s right, Ewoks are out, Wookies are in, as some Star Wars fans believe the finale of the original trilogy would have been better with a few serious changes. In the Star Wars subreddit, one redditor posed a question to the rest of the community, would Return of the Jedi have been better if the final fight took place on Kashyyyk and involved Wookies taking down the empire instead of Ewoks?
“Do you wish Episode 6 had taken place on Kashyyyk instead of Endor? It would have been cool to see the Wookies take down the Empire.”
Wookiees are obviously much more fearsome and terrifying compared to the Ewoks; it would have made for a much more brutal fight between the two sides. but would it have been better than what we ended up with? Interestingly enough we were incredibly close to actually getting the showdown with Wookiees instead as George Lucas originally planned to have the Empire’s shields placed on Kashyyyk. However, Lucas wanted the fight at the end to be between the Empire and a primitive species. Although the Wookiees had originally been planned as primitive, Chewbacca’s intelligence and skills meant that his species could no longer be what the finale needed. In the end, the Ewoks were created and we got the iconic fight that we know and love today.Â
While some admitted that it would have been cool to see Wookiees stomping on the empire, in the end, it wouldn’t have been as satisfying. The film’s finale is exciting because the odds are stacked against the Ewoks, but the little guy still manages to win. The alternative would not have had the same feeling of triumph, and most agree:
“Wookiee’s fighting would have been a lot more exciting and interesting in my opinion. RotJ’s pacing is weird to me and I find Endor and Ewoks scene slow and uninteresting.
But Gungans and Ewoks do fit the theme of the little guys being underestimated and helping save the galaxy.
It’s just hard to suspend my belief that Stormtroopers are getting knocked out with tiny arrows and rocks. Flametroopers would have been used a lot more too.”
“I like the thematic restatement that the two battles in contrast represent.
X-Wings vs Death Star, Speeders vs AT-ATs, Luke vs Vader, Yoda vs Dooku, Ewoks vs The Empire.
The small over the large, nature over the machine.”
So in the end, it seems like the Ewoks were probably the right move. Most fans are happy with the way Return of the Jedi turned out, but no film is perfect. It might be hard to believe that a bunch of teddy-bear-looking aliens were able to crush a technologically superior force, but that’s Star Wars for you, a franchise that requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. If Luke, a boy with no real combat experience, can jump in an X-Wing and blow up the death star, then the Ewoks can band together and defeat the Empire’s attack.
