SilverWook said:
IIRC, it wasn't until the Making of a Saga documentary that Lucas mentioned it was originally going to be Wookiees, which aired around 1985. I'm unsure if he ever mentioned it publicly prior to that.
There were over 70 little people playing Ewoks in the film. Finding an equal number of tall people to play Wookiees really should not have been as difficult. (Think basketball players!) And only the costumes that are going to be in closeups have to as detailed as Peter Mayhew's. Only a handful of Ewok masks even had any articulation.
As for creating the illusion of a large Wook army in 1983, there were ways to accomplish this with opticals, camera angles, and just clever editing. There weren't that many guys in rebel uniforms standing around at the end of Star Wars. And how many knights do you think you see charging at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail? ;)
yeah mate,you make good points.
having said that,hypothetically,with that many wookies occupying the final 3rd of the film the aesthetic of the movie would have felt more in the line of Planet Of The Apes or even dare I say it---the Christmas Special!
Having Chewbacca by himself feeding off other different types of characters is fine.
But once you have more than 1 wookie or a bunch of wookies all growling and howling at each other(Think The Christmas special or ROTS) it just turns alters the tone of what Star wars is about(In my opinion).
Also we were already familiar with Wookies as an alien species by 83'.
A bunch of Ewoks was something different.
And sure,clever editing may have compensated for the lack of volume(of rebel soldiers),but that scene only lasted 3 minutes!
The wookies would have had to occupy far more screen time.
And in order to carry the dramatic weight of their impact you need more than just clever editing in order to supend the audience's disbelief.