Posted 12 July 2006 - 02:13 AM
Hard to feel sorry for folks who look and act like "beasts," it would seem from an Imperial standpoint. Remember in ANH, when Han and Luke brought Chewie to the detention block, the first words out of the warden's (?) mouth was, "Where are you taking this... THING?"
It would seem that the Wookies are the (metaphorical) Africans of the Star Wars galaxy.
Prejudice, plain and simple.
I think someone took Lucas to task about there only being human beings in charge in the Empire, and he hemmed and hawed something about there being a "human only" bias on the part of the Emperor - unfortunately, I don't remember where I heard or read that particular reference.
Bottom line, it was far cheaper to deal with humans in military uniforms than it was to dress someone as an alien, or come up with non-humanoid aliens.