After decades of believing Ewoks are good only for three things -- selling merchandise, annoying "Star Wars" fans and landing a song on the "Billboard" Hot 100 -- along comes one more: providing grist for the rumor mill.

We've known since October that "Star Wars" veteran Warwick Davis has a role in "The Force Awakens," but there's been no clues as to what it might be. While the actor played a handful of characters in 1999's "The Phantom Menace," he's of course best known as Wicket the Ewok in 1983's "The Return of the Jedi," a role he reprised for the TV movies "The Ewok Adventure" and "Ewoks: The Battle of Endor."

That brings us to his latest "Star Wars" rumor: The booklet released for Kathleen Kennedy and Daisy Ridley's recent press tour of Japan lists "Wicket" above Davis' photo. Although the image is low-quality, and most of the text is in Japanese, you can clearly see "Wicket" in yellow.

Is that proof that Wicket, perhaps accompanied by other adorable, annoying Ewoks, has a role in "The Force Awakens"? Possibly, but it seems highly unlikely. It's more probable that Wicket is a recognizable "Star Wars" character, while whomever he's playing in "The Force Awakens" is ... not.

Beyond that, however, the inclusion of Wicket smacks of fan service of a particularly risky kind, given the divisive nature of the Ewoks (who, let's face it, may only be a few rungs away from Jar-Jar Binks and young Anakin Skywalker on the annoyance scale).

There's also the matter of comments made by Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, on that very Japanese press tour: “Seeing how the Ewoks could return is a little harder to imagine.”

Yes. Yes, it is.

Directed by J.J. Abrams, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" arrives Dec. 18, presumably without any Ewoks in tow.

(via The Mary Sue)