The Solo: A Star Wars Story has finally been released. In among all the action scenes, the trailer offers a glimpse of a tender moment that's sure to delight viewers; it shows Chewbacca in a tender embrace with another Wookiee. Long treated as little more than a sidekick in the main Star Wars saga, it seems Chewie is about to get some serious character development. But who is this mysterious Wookiee?
The answer, fans are certain, is that this is Malla - Chewbacca's wife, and the mother his future child. She's actually one of the oldest characters in the classic Star Wars Expanded Universe, created all the way back in 1978. And now, at long last, it seems Malla is being restored into the overarching Star Wars canon.
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Who Is Malla?
The story of Malla begins only a year after the release of A New Hope, with CBS deciding they had to capitalize on the film's unexpected success. Their solution was to put together a TV movie, directed by Steve Binder. The plot saw Chewbacca return to his homeworld of Kashyyyk in order to celebrate "Life Day" (the Star Wars equivalent of Christmas Day) with his family. It introduced Malla, Chewie's wife, as well as his young son. Sadly, Binder's TV movie was hardly a tremendous success. It was heavily criticized by both viewers and critics, and was perceived as little more than an attempt to "cash in" on A New Hope's success. To give a sense of the TV movie's quality, one major arc involved Malla's unsuccessful attempt to cook a meal.
She may have had an ignominious start, but Malla soon became an important character in the growing Star Wars Expanded Universe. Fans weren't particularly impressed by the Holiday Special, but they liked the idea of treating Chewie as an actual character in his own right, with both a family and a backstory.
Appropriately enough, fans had already begun to expect Malla to return to the canon sooner or later. The Star Wars novels had already revealed Chewie's son was back in play; with Lumpy back in the picture, that clearly set a precedent for Malla to become canon once again as well.
What Role Will Malla Play In Solo?
In July last year, Solo director Ron Howard - a master of social media - posted a behind-the-scenes tweet from the film. Eagle-eyed fans swiftly spotted a screen on which two Wookiees were embracing, and deduced that they were Chewie and Malla. But that single image didn't really give away much.
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In contrast, the Solo trailer clearly reveals that Chewie and Malla being reunited in some sort of action scene, with blaster bolts spraying around them. Given Wookiees are used as slaved by the Empire, it's entirely possible Chewie is working to break his wife out of prison. If that's the case, it may explain just what Han did to earn the Life Debt. In the old Expanded Universe, Han saved Chewie from Imperial slavery. Maybe in the new-canon Star Wars universe, Han saved Chewie's wife.
It's important to that this doesn't mean the Holiday Special is canon once again. Grand iral Thrawn; but the Thrawn Trilogy is still non-canon, and his character and role is subtly different. The same likely applies to the Holiday Special; Lucasfilm are lifting the elements they like, and discarding the rest. Still, it will certainly be interesting to see whether or not any other Wookiees make the jump from the Holiday Special into the canon.
Right now, the extent of Malla's role remains a mystery. Whatever the truth may be, though, it's clear Solo is restoring another significant element back into the canon.
