[nerd_out] Somewhere on one of the Star Wars DVD's commentaries, the Ewoks' origin is explained. Originally, Chewie was supposed to also be human, and the moon of Endor was a planet of Wookiees, not Ewoks. But Lucas loved the Wookiee race so much he wanted one in the storylines much more prominently, so he swapped out human Chewie for Wookiee Chewie. And instead of ROTJ featuring a planet of Wookiees (overkill), he 'flipped' the Wookiee characteristics: short instead of tall, and flip “wook + ee” to “ee + wook” ('ewok'). For serious. [/nerd_out]
