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In Return of the Jedi, the ewoks plan on eating Luke, Han and Chewie.

THREEPIO: I'm rather embarrassed, General Solo, but it appears you are to be the main course at a banquet in my honor.

At this point, the tribe had already met and befriended Leia, and had encountered the Imperials in the past, making it fairly likely that they knew humans were sentient.

This raises the question of how often they ate sentients. Was it a one-off thing, to honor an extremely rare visit from a god, or was this fairly common?

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  • 10
    Ewoks: Cute and cuddly teddy bears on the outside, horrifying man-eating savages on the inside.
    – Rogue Jedi
    Mar 11, 2016 at 21:14
  • 8
    You don't just have equipment for cooking people laying around and not use it.
    – Oldcat
    Mar 11, 2016 at 22:02
  • 8
    The problem was that somewhere along the line, someone got them wet. Mar 11, 2016 at 22:33
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    How often do ewoks eat sentients? Whenever they can get them. Mar 11, 2016 at 23:18
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    1. As often as Rebel patrols with hungry Wookiees stumble into their traps. 2. Whenever major battles take place on the moon. 3. Every time a young Jedi roasts his father's body on a funeral pyre, then gets distracted by Force-ghosts long enough for the Ewoks to pull the body off the fire.
    – Wad Cheber
    Jun 1, 2016 at 1:27

2 Answers 2

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The episode "An Imperial Feast" of the canon series Forces of Destiny depicts the ewoks as fully willing to eat some captured stormtroopers. Apparently, they have no qualms about eating whatever meat they can get their paws on, but they appear to prefer ration sticks to human flesh.

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From Wookieepedia:

Following the Battle of Endor, the Ewoks are preparing for a feat. They have gathered various fruits, vegetables, and carbohydrates. The Ewoks have also gathered several captured Imperial stormtroopers to cook for their feast....

...While Han is unwilling to intervene, Leia tells one of the Ewoks that they must let the Imperials go and treat the enemy fairly. The Ewok responds by striking a stormtrooper with his ladle. Leia stops the Ewok and tells Han and Chewbacca that the Ewoks are clearly hungry. She tells Han and Chewie to go to General Syndulla's camp and obtain a crate of ration sticks to placate the Ewoks and save the stormtroopers' lives. Leia stays behind to keep the stormtroopers safe. A sulky Han reluctantly accedes to Leia's request....

...Back at the Ewok camp, Leia is involved in a "tug of war" with an Ewok, who is trying to roast a stormtrooper alive. Han, Chewie and R2-D2 arrive just in time with crates of ration sticks. The Ewoks gratefully accept the ration sticks.

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  • Mm, mm. Stormtroopers, the other white meat.
    – user89104
    Dec 2, 2019 at 6:42
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I've looked around a lot for this, and as best I can tell, there is no canonical answer. It seems unlikely Lucas put much thought into the idea outside of it being a quaint plot device wherewith Luke could use the Force to show the Ewoks the 'power' of their new God, and give C3PO the clout needed to call the Ewoks to arms against the Imperial garrison on Endor.

If one were to craft lore behind the practice, I would say writing the occurrence off as a one-time 'honor the gods' sort of thing would fit best with the generally lighter tone of the Star Wars cinematic universe, but making them ravenous cannibals is far more entertaining imho.

See:

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    Is it cannibalism in this case? They're not eating other ewoks.
    – Kai Qing
    Oct 31, 2017 at 19:01

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