I was today years old when I learned this, that Ewok is a play on Wookiee, and that Warwick Davis was Wicket.
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Wicket’s canonical full name is “Wicket Wystri Warrick” in honor of the (then) child actor who portrayed him.
One of the reasons he became the breakout star who got a lead role in those made-for-TV Ewok movies is that of all the Ewok actors he managed to bring some semblance of life to the awkward teddy bear suit. Unlike the Chewbacca costume, the Ewok masks had almost no mouth movement at all but Davis kind of figured out a way to fake it by flicking his tongue through the teeth.
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Right?
He only looks about 10 years older than he did in Willow… and that was 30+ years ago.
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What’s funny is I grew up watching some of those movies and blowing through Willow, but literally just learned all this today.
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I was hoping for something like an owl without feathers.
Image link spoiler-blurred because it may not be everyone’s cuppa.
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I believe he was only like 16 when they started production on Willow, but he had to act and appear older than he really was since his character was supposed to be a grown man with a wife and children. A big challenge for any child actor!
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The de-furred face combines the typical pleading look of a Halloween trick-or-treater-at-your-door with the-more-I-creep-you-out-the-more-treats-I’ll-get-before-I-decide-to-leave look.
I was just preparing to go to bed when this topic came along, and now I will have nightmares.
Not about curiously furless or featherless animals or sci-fi people. But about not noticing the play on words, not knowing about Warwick playing Wicket, and not knowing Fuzzy-Wuzzy, in both cases - Kipling’s and the nursery rhyme.
Phew. O_o
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Whew! I was about wail about my ruined childhood, when it hit me. Twenty years from now if someone asks whether or not I had a midlife crisis, I’ll just search for news headlines from this year and say, “Several.”
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The place I found info doesn’t even mention Kipling.
However, there seems to be some discussion at Wikipedia about previously unmentioned relationships between the term and the nursery rhyme.
No solid info, though.
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Well, he did have them kiss, which was pretty racy for the days following the sexual revolution.
That page doesn’t seem to cite any sources at all but the author seems to conflate the Kipling poem (which is definitely not a nursery rhyme) with the novelty song/nursery rhyme of similar title but different subject matter. I think the name “Fuzzy Wuzzy” is the only thing connecting the two.
However it does seem likely that the authors of the children’s song were familiar with the Kipling poem and just lifted the silly-sounding name because they thought it would make a good rhyme.
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Pretty big step down for “racy” sci-fi considering all the sexy hijinks that Barbarella was getting up to in 1968.
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What do you mean? It was incest adjacent!
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If you want kinky nookie then dial up the Wookiee.
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There’s the Star Wars spinoff we never knew we needed: Furries vs. Waxers.
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My first thougth was: “Holy shit, they used the same mold of Roger the Dogbear!” 
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