---
name: "Joonas Suotamo"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/joonas-suotamo"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "3 October 1986"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 64
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-09-18T12:12:30.056090+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Joonas Suotamo

Actor. Born 3 October 1986 in Espoo, Finland.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 3 October 1986, Espoo, Finland
- **Active:** 2017–present
- **Also known as:** Joonas Viljami Suotamo
- **Average Fi1m score:** 64, as actor, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 61 (3), 2020s 71 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 64 to 67 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 2 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 1 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Action 3, Adventure 3, Science Fiction 3, Comedy 1, Mystery 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1
- **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $2,802m across 3 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joonas_Suotamo, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16990705, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6934058/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1709041

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Solo: A Star Wars Story*](https://film.one/film/solo-a-star-wars-story.md) (58)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Joonas Suotamo

> Suotamo's job is to be invisible inside a Wookiee, and he does it well: he inherited Peter Mayhew's walk, kept it, and in *Solo* found the one scene that felt like a film rather than a franchise obligation.

Halfway through *Solo: A Star Wars Story* (2018), two prisoners are thrown into the mud on Mimban and set on each other. One of them is Han Solo. The other is a great deal of wet fur, and the thing to watch is not the fight but the moment it stops: the shift in the shoulders when the Wookiee decides the boy is not worth killing and might be worth keeping. That is Joonas Suotamo, and it is the clearest account of what he does. The face is a mask; the acting is in the weight.

He came to the part sideways. A former professional basketball player, he was hired as Peter Mayhew's body double on *The Force Awakens* (2015), took the role over fully for *The Last Jedi* (2017), and carried it through *Solo* and *The Rise of Skywalker* (2019), with Mayhew consulting along the way. Since then he has stayed inside the suit and changed the suit: Lurch in *Wednesday* (2022), The Scourge in *Willow* (2022), and Kelnacca, a Wookiee Jedi, in *The Acolyte* (2024), his first Star Wars part that is not Chewbacca. It is a specialised trade, and not many people are asked to practise it for a living.

What works is the walk. Suotamo has said he studied Mayhew's gait and mannerisms and would only ever play the character by honouring them, and it shows: the heavy roll through the shoulders, the pace that never quite hurries, the head that turns before the body does. His stated aim is to move like a creature rather than a tall man in a costume, and in *Solo* he manages it even in the action, where a stuntman's instincts would give the game away. The roars are his too, and he treats them as lines, so that a growl carries a complaint or a warning rather than filling a gap in the soundtrack.

Our reservation is the one anyone must have about a performer nobody can see. We scored *Solo* 58, and most of what is wrong with it, the murk, the second hour in which Han does not change, is not his doing; but we can only judge what the suit lets through, and the suit lets through less than a face. Still, we were surprised to find the Mimban scene the one that moved us in a film built largely of homework. Two prisoners who stop fighting because they realise they want the same thing is an old idea, and Suotamo sells it without a word we can understand.

He promised of *Solo* that "You’re going to see a side of him that’s less cuddly and more let’s-get-this-stuff-done", and that is what we got. Whether there is a career for him outside the fur is not yet clear, and possibly not the point. The best suit performers are the ones you never think about, and by that measure he is doing rather well.

## Biography

Joonas Viljami Suotamo is a Finnish actor and former professional basketball player. Born on 3 October 1986 in Espoo, he played college basketball at Pennsylvania State University before competing in Finnish leagues until 2015.

Suotamo is known for portraying Chewbacca in the *Star Wars* franchise. He first appeared as a body double in *Star Wars: The Force Awakens* (2015) and took over the role as principal performer in *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* (2017), *Solo: A Star Wars Story* (2018) and *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker* (2019). He later played the Wookiee Jedi Kelnacca in the series *The Acolyte* (2024) and Lurch in *Wednesday* (2022).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Wednesday* (2022), Fi1m 71, as Lurch — [page](https://film.one/tv/wednesday.md)
- *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker* (2019), Fi1m 50, as Chewbacca — [page](https://film.one/film/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker.md)
- *Solo: A Star Wars Story* (2018), Fi1m 58, as Chewbacca — [page](https://film.one/film/solo-a-star-wars-story.md)
- *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* (2017), Fi1m 76, as Chewbacca — [page](https://film.one/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi.md)

## Complete filmography (7)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Acolyte* (2024), series, as Kelnacca
- *Willow* (2022), series, as The Scourge
- *Wednesday* (2022), series, as Lurch — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/tv/wednesday.md)
- *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker* (2019), as Chewbacca — Fi1m 50, [page](https://film.one/film/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker.md)
- *Solo: A Star Wars Story* (2018), as Chewbacca — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/solo-a-star-wars-story.md)
- *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* (2017), as Chewbacca — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi.md)
- *Star Wars: The Force Awakens* (2015), as Chewbacca Double

## Gallery

- ![Finnish basketball player Joonas Suotamo playing for Lappeenrannan NMKY against KTP-Basket at Steveco Areena in Kotka, Finland. KTP-Basket won the Finnish Baske (2010)](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-493c20808302.jpg) Finnish basketball player Joonas Suotamo playing for Lappeenrannan NMKY against KTP-Basket at Steveco Areena in Kotka, Finland. KTP-Basket won the Finnish Baske (2010) — Tuomas Vitikainen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Joonas_Suotamo.jpg/1280px-Joonas_Suotamo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Joonas Suotamo](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-6b7ecb222fe1.jpg) Joonas Suotamo — Tuomas Vitikainen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Joonas_Suotamo_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Joonas Suotamo](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-27d8ee94fe9b.jpg) Joonas Suotamo — Image via TMDB
- ![Joonas Suotamo](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-19d040e1e897.jpg) Joonas Suotamo — Image via TMDB
- ![Joonas Suotamo](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-ac95a598b9ba.jpg) Joonas Suotamo — Image via TMDB
- ![Joonas Suotamo](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-e433b42eca38.jpg) Joonas Suotamo — Image via TMDB
- ![Joonas Suotamo](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-3f067c381c35.jpg) Joonas Suotamo — Image via TMDB
- ![Joonas Suotamo](https://film.one/media/person/378153/gallery-c14ee25b5192.jpg) Joonas Suotamo — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/joonas-suotamo