Yarua / Legends Yarua was a male Wookiee Senator who represented Mytaranor sector in the Senate during the waning days of the Galactic Republic , as well as during the Clone Wars . He was assisted by two Wookiee aides and , at the end of his career , Yarua had at least 100 years in his senatorial place . Biography . A male member of the Wookiee species , Yarua originated from the arboreal Kashyyyk , a planet of the Mytaranor sector . In his younger years , Yarua only wished to work in the family business and prepare for taking its leadership in due time . But events went out of control : at the age of 120 , Yarua was forced to take the mantle of patriarch when his father died in an accident . The Wookiee took his new role with profound importance , learning to deal with conflicts by using diplomacy rather than brute force . He emerged as a capable diplomat , and the elders of his community came to admire him . Around 119 BBY , when the Wookiee senator who represented his people before the Congress of the Galactic Republic retired , the elders urged Yarua to succeed him . The young patriarch accepted the honor his peers did him and traveled to Coruscant , capital world of the Republic . Yarua was one of the senators who supported Finis Valorum ' s sanctions against the Yinchorri in 33 BBY . Later that year , Chancellor Valorum proposed the taxation of the until then free trade zones . Senator Palpatine of Naboo then suggested that a part of the collected money could be invested in the growth of planetary systems in the affected areas . Yarua and other Senators of the region , including Tendau Bendon and Horox Ryyder , cheerfully supported the idea . Before the Clone Wars , several peace negotiation meetings between the Wookiees and the Trandoshans took place on Hsskhor , but none reached profitable results . Senator Yarua and Trandoshan Speaker - Above - All Hadocrassk met up with the diplomat Jedi Oppo Rancisis , trying to find peace between the two cultures . Unfortunately , serious attacks from the Trandoshans against the Wookiees , including the destruction of a transport with 215 Wookiees , made it almost impossible . The negotiations finally stopped when it was learned that the Trandoshans had support from the Trade Federation , and finally declared themselves as Republican opponents . During the Clone Wars , Yarua stayed on the Republic ' s side by his King ' s order because of his natural sympathy for the Jedi Order and the Republic itself . Following the Battle of Kashyyyk , Yarua and the other members of the Kashyyyk Senatorial delegation were arrested and removed by the Galactic Empire , because the government on Kashyyyk was helping to hide Jedi Knights . Personality and traits . Despite his attachment to diplomacy , Yarua still had the fiery temper of most Wookiees , and he would sometimes give way to anger . When he withdrew his delegation from the negotiations with the Trandoshans in 22 BBY , Yarua destroyed the protocol droid translating the talks by pulling the interpreter ' s right arm out of its socket . Nonetheless , Senator Yarua possessed a firm sense of fairness and was known as a forceful champion of justice in the Senate . In the halls of the Senate Rotunda , his imposing stature and fierce attitude inspired reverent awe among his peers . Yarua of Kashyyyk despised the rampant corruption around him , and he found representation of commercial power within the Senate scandalous . Although his fondest wish was to return to the peace and tranquillity of his homeworld , the Wookiee was bent on seeing his responsibilities through to the end . Throughout his career , Yarua was a enthusiastic supporter of the Republican reform movements , which he thought could be funded by a through taxation plan . Behind the scenes . Yarua first appeared in the 1999 movie , the first installment of the " Star Wars " prequel trilogy , in which he was played by John Coppinger . The costume used for Senator Yarua was actually a Chewbacca costume from the original trilogy . It was altered slightly , so that he would not look exactly like Chewbacca . Because of the Italian Hasbro comic story " " requiring that they implement images from Hasbro ' s FlashBack Photos franchise into the story for marketing purposes , it gave the , albeit forced , first implication that Palpatine , back when he was a senator , initially had good relations to the Wookiees in spite of his Empire ' s speciesist policies . The implementation of this led to some confusion , which had been noted in the Star Wars Insider 96 article Strangers Among Us , although the specific details were later supplied in both the story " " as well as in the 2001 Political Thriller " Cloak of Deception " .