Jedi Force: Watch out for the Wookiee

Watch out for the Wookiee 

Author: Uncredited
Illustrator: Uncredited
Medium: Picture book
Publication Date: July 2011
Timeline Placement: 0 ABY
 
Han and Chewie are back in Mos Eisley on a new mission: a mission to avoid the cops! They're wanted by the Empire and Imperial stormtroopers are going around with wanted posters of their faces, asking if anyone has seen these women. They hotfoot it through an activity maze and blast off in the Millennium Falcon, but when a Star Destroyer starts chasing them they realize that the hyperdrive is broken!!! Han evades their pursuers by landing on a nearby green planet covered in lush and verdant forests, a planet that shouldn't exist within sublight travel distance from Tatooine according to everything West End Games told us about the Tatoo system. Maybe this is a previously unknown fourth planet in the system, or a moon we've never seen before. Seems like a good topic for a future Essential Atlas retcon, but oh wait Lucasfilm threw that entire universe in the garbage so we'll never get that now.

 

Chewie leaves to explore the planet while Han tinkers with the hyperdrive, completely oblivious to the platoon of Imperial troops surrounding the Falcon. Han is captured and dragged outside in handcuffs, thinking that he could really use the help of a Wookiee right now. His lips to the Force's ears, for suddenly Chewbacca reappears, bringing with him dozens of Wookiees who were just randomly living on that planet right next to Tatooine I guess. The Wookiees make short work of the stormtroopers and lead them away into the forest, presumably to be brutally dismembered out of sight of the small children reading this book. Chewie fixes the hyperdrive himself, thus proving Han a moron at repairing his own ship years before Rey did in The Force Awakens. Mary Sewbacca, amirite? As they engage the hyperdrive and set course for new adventures, Han racistly says, "I guess you are pretty smart... for a fuzzball!"

Watch out for the Wookiee is a story booklet that was included with the Millennium Falcon playset released by Playskool in 2011 as part of its Jedi Force toyline. Since this book gives no indication of when it takes place in the Star Wars timeline and is way too obscure to be referenced in any other EU sources that could pin down when it occurs, my thought has always been to add it to the vague chronology of Han and Chewie's pre-ANH adventures, alongside the likes of The Han Solo Adventures, Adventures in Hyperspace, The Wookiee Storybook, etc. Very few EU fans seem aware of this book's existence, however, and the only two fan timelines that I've seen include it stick it in the already overcrowded post-ANH period, presumably assuming that Han and Chewie are being chased by stormtroopers for their role in blowing up the Death Star. Given their established criminal history, I wouldn't necessarily assume that to be the only thing that could ever have landed them on the Empire's radar, but there are already a few post-ANH stories featuring Han and Chewie on their own, and I'm not one to rock the boat, so into the 0 ABY morass it goes.

Not much of interest about the story itself, but it can make a fine addition to your collection based on its obscurity alone.