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With Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story opening this weekend, I recently sat down with Joonas Suotamo to talk about playing Chewbacca. If you’re not aware, this is the third time Suotamo has played Chewbacca in a Star Wars movie, since he was in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and now Solo. During the brief interview Suotamo talked about working with J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson and Ron Howard, what it was like filming the scene where Han and Chewie meet each other for the first time, and memorable moments from filming Solo.

As most of you know, Solo takes place before the first Star Wars movie and follows a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) as he befriends his future copilot Chewbacca (Suotamo) and meets the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). Solo also stars Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Paul Bettany, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, Jon Favreau, and Thandie Newton. Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters on May 25th.

Joonas Suotamo: