According to the official Lucasfilm website, Joonas Suotamo, who is known for playing Chewbacca in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and Solo: A Star Wars Story, will be appearing in the new Willow series as the Scourge.
What’s Happening:
- In Willow, Suotamo plays a monstrosity known only as the Scourge, with cracked gray skin covered in slime, and wearing a spiked cage over his head.
- As part of the mysterious Gales, Suotamo’s humanoid creature is pretty different from a lovable, cuddly Wookiee, and is a major threat to the heroes of Tir Asleen.
- “The Gales are these lackeys for this sinister being,” he says. “Through some dark magic, they’ve become these really unnaturally strong fighters.”
- Willow showrunner Jon Kasdan was looking for an actor to fill the role of a “beastly, muscular” hulk, and being 6ft 11, Suotamo was the perfect choice.
- “Compared to Chewie, the costume was a lot more to put on,” he says. “I had a team of people following me with different gadgets and gloves and the cage.” Suotamo would spend about two to three hours in the makeup chair every morning, putting on a muscle suit, makeup, and having silicone material glued onto his face. The aesthetics were only half the journey, though.
- “It was new territory for me,” he says. “I’d grown accustomed to playing these lovable moments, and all of a sudden, that’s not my job at all.” In the end, Suotamo found a way to play evil. “There were a lot of times I would be in the dark, rehearsing my violent outbursts in the suit,” he says.
- On the set of Willow, he was reunited with his Solo cast mate Erin Kellyman, who plays Jade in Willow.
- The Willow series premieres tomorrow, November 30th exclusively on Disney+, and the original movie is already available to stream there.
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