Originally Posted by jamesabrown

I've read, but I can't confirm, that the Mighty Victory of the Ewoks was originally conceived by Lucas to be the Mighty Victory of the Wookies. Lucas had a grand idea of exploring the theme of Stone-Age Primitives Defeats Modern Technology (a romantic notion albeit rarely occurring in our world). However, when plotting out Ep. 4, Lucas had no idea that the franchise would be as successful as it was, so he couldn't count on the bank roll to make Ep 6.

So with the prospect of not being able to introduce Wookies at all, Lucas decided to move Chewie as a main character up into Ep 4, give him some technical skills (since it wouldn't make sense for Han Solo to adopt a primitive animal to be a co-pilot of a temperamental ship) and hope for the best. Had Lucas known that SW would be a success (again, this may be just scuttlebutt) then the copilot would have been some other character altogether, and the last Death Star would have been assembled over the forest moon of Kashyyyk, only to be defeated by the locals. It would have resembled what we saw during Ep. 3. At least then you have the superior size and strength of the Wookies to counter their primitive technology.

Instead, we got Attack of the Teddy Bears to appeal to the Sesame Street demographic.

Again, it's just what I heard.