Familiar Faces Back For 'Star Wars: Episode III'

Reprising their classic roles from the original trilogy are actors Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker. They return to Star Wars as Chewbacca the Wookiee, C-3PO and R2-D2.

"I'm delighted to return as Chewbacca," says Mayhew. "I think his re-appearance in this film is a fitting way to tie the whole saga together, especially for Wookiee fans." Given that Chewbacca is a sprightly 200 years old in Episode IV, he is more than old enough to fit into the prequel timeline.

Daniels has played See-Threepio in all of the Star Wars movies. In the original trilogy, he squeezed into the tight confines of the golden suit to play the prim and proper protocol droid. For Episode I, he leant his vocal talents for an incomplete version of Threepio that was realized as a puppet. In Episode II, he returned to the costume, donning an earlier and less polished iteration of the droid's familiar form.

Though the role of R2-D2 has become increasingly automated since the very start, it's been a Star Wars tradition to include Kenny Baker as the heroic astromech droid at some point in the movie. Baker was essential to the early Artoo seen in A New Hope, when limitations in remote control and computer technology required a person beneath the dome to bring Artoo to life. Having Baker inside the suit has brought "an element of humanity" to the classic character, Director George Lucas has said.