Guanta/Legends

Guanta was a male Wookiee warrior who lived on the planet Kashyyyk during the Clone Wars. By 19 BBY, Guanta was a seasoned and skilled combatant and an elder in his community. He was broad-shouldered, brawny, and covered in brown fur that he bound into knots about his chin. His teeth were yellowed and not all present. At the end of the Clone Wars, Guanta answered a call for warriors put out by the Wookiee captain Merumeru. As Confederate battle droids stormed the beach near the city of Kachirho, Guanta stood behind Merumeru and alongside other warriors as they defended the city during the Battle of Kashyyyk. In the Shyriiwook language, the suffix -anta in Guanta's name meant "judge" and "leader."

Biography
Guanta was a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk who had become an elder in his culture by 19 BBY. That year, as the Clone Wars raged throughout the galaxy, a force of battle droids from the Confederacy of Independent Systems attacked Guanta's homeworld. A rival force of clone troopers from the Galactic Republic, under the leadership of Jedi Master Yoda, arrived on Kashyyyk to help the Wookiees resist the invasion. As the Separatist forces neared the beachfront of the city of Kachirho, the Wookiee captain Merumeru issued a clarion call for soldiers to defend the settlement. Guanta was among the many volunteers who answered the summons.

As the assemblage waited behind a set of revetments for the droid army to draw near and for Merumeru to issue the call to attack, Guanta was in the front row immediately behind the leader. As the droids approached, the Wookiee leader stood atop the barricades and roared for his comrades to charge into battle; Guanta and the others then rushed to meet their opponents in combat. The combined force of Wookiees and clone troopers bested the Separatist war machine and won the Battle of Kachirho. Nevertheless, the Galactic Republic gave way to the Galactic Empire soon thereafter. In the aftermath, the Wookiees of Kashyyyk were enslaved into Imperial work camps.

Personality and traits
By the end of the Clone Wars, Guanta was a seasoned warrior, skilled in battle. The suffix -anta in his name meant "judge" and "leader" in his native language, Shyriiwook. When his fellow Wookiee Merumeru sounded the call for volunteer soldiers, Guanta became a loyal member of the captain's volunteer army. At the time he fought in the Battle of Kachirho, Guanta had a stocky, well-muscled build that afforded him the ability to pull arms out of their sockets. His brown fur was streaked with blond, especially in the area around his face and head. The Wookiee bound his chin and neck fur into six ponytails with black bands. His skin was dark brown in color. An aged specimen of his species, Guanta's teeth had yellowed by the time of the Clone Wars. He was missing his top right incisor, and he had a gap between his two bottom front teeth. Guanta was right-handed.

Behind the scenes
"Chewie's actually way younger than all of you. You guys are the senior warriors of the pack here, and Chewie is just a little kid in this movie, and he grows up to be an important Wookiee later on."

- Rob Coleman, to the Wookiee extras during the filming of Revenge of the Sith

Guanta, originally referred to as either Wookiee #1, 2, or 6, was one of six Wookiees created by the Industrial Light & Magic creature department under the supervision of Rebecca Hunt for 2005's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Constructing the costumes for Guanta and the other Wookiees was the largest and most difficult task for the department during the film's pre-production. The suit had two main parts: a lower body suit to provide the character's musculature and an outer suit of modacrylic hair. A mask, hands, and feet completed the ensemble. The muscle layer and mask were based on a body cast of an actor &mdash;either Steven Foy, Julian Khazzouh, or James Rowland &mdash;and thus tailored specifically to his physique. The Creature Shop team added the Wookiee's hair by hand under the guidance of Fabrication Supervisor Lou Elsey.

The labor-intensive process needed to create the suits for Guanta and the other Wookiees pushed the filming of the Battle of Kashyyyk scenes into the summer of 2004, making them some of the final live-action sequences shot for the movie. The scenes were directed by Animation Supervisor Rob Coleman and marked his live-action directorial debut. On May 17, against a greenscreen at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, Coleman had the costumed Australian actors repeatedly rush over a green barrier that would later be replaced by a computer-generated barricade. Each take, the actors switched weapons and accessories but kept the same Wookiee suits. Coleman and his team later composited the shots to create the scene in Revenge of the Sith where the Wookiee volunteer army charges at Merumeru's command. However, Guanta and the other Wookiee characters were filmed numerous times to fill the front row of Wookiees in the shot, and no source has identified exactly which of the assembled Wookiees is Guanta and which are merely Wookiees that look like him. Guanta is named as having been one of the Wookiees in the crowd with Merumeru, so this article counts any Star Wars publication that features an image of the Wookiee army behind the barricade as an appearance of Guanta. Similarly, Hasbro released a Wookiee action figure called "Wookiee Heavy Gunner" in 2005 as part of its Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith toy line. The portrait used for the card depicts Guanta; however, the toy itself is a repaint of a previous action figure based on the costume of Grakchawwaa, another Wookiee from the film.

The novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, first published in 2005 by Del Rey, features a Wookiee character named Guania who participates in the cleanup effort following the Battle of Kashyyyk. Because several other Wookiees who appear in the book are characters from Revenge of the Sith, such as Chewbacca, Lachichuk, and Tarfful, Star Wars writer Bob Vitas has suggested that Guania's name is an error, and that Luceno intended the character to be Guanta. However, the 2008 reference work The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia includes entries for both Guanta and Guania, establishing the two as distinct individuals.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith PhotoComic
 * Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith: Illustrated Screenplay
 * Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: The Movie Storybook