imperialscum said:

SilverWook said:

Having to explain to the audience why Chewie's not around would be awkward and sound forced

I don't know the details of Cheewie's death (I don't even know in which novel they made it) and I don't really care about it. But I have to disagree with what you said. Something like that really doesn't need detailed explaining. All it needs is a scene where Han or someone else mentions it.

For example in ROTS, the kidnapping of the Palpatine was a major plot point that was never directly explained in the film and yet it worked okay. The kidnapping was shown in the less known Clone Wars cartoons.

We saw the end result of the kidnapping though. Chewie deserves more than a throwaway line that he died years ago.

They're not about to hamstring the sequels by keeping continuity with the books anyway, so the point is moot.