You can usually tell if you’ve stumbled on the home of a Disney animation fan just by what’s sitting on the coffee table. For years, Disney’s The Art Of… book series has beautifully opened the archives of Disney and Pixar animated films, revealing concept art, character development, scenic design, and more in beautiful odes to the artists who make these worlds real.
This summer, Abrams Books, Disney, and Lucasfilm have finally done the same for a very different kind of work of art. Written by Nerdist’s Amy Ratcliffe with a foreword by Walt Disney Imagineering’s Portfolio Creative Executive (who lead the design of the land), The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a dream come true for fans of both themed entertainment design and Star Wars. The 250-page book features over 300 pieces of artwork, delving into the design (and redesign) of every attraction, show, snack, shop, and secret spot on Batuu… and some that never made it into the parks at all…
Today, we’ll take a look at 4 of our favorite concepts that were cut or cancelled from Disney’s Star Wars lands, but detailed Ratcliffe’s new book. As in any The Art Of book, what didn’t come to be isn’t meant to be an indictment on designers or executives. Rather, it’s a reflection of the deep and wide process that’s used to conceive of these massive projects, and then to pare them down to the restrictions of reality, where operations, marketing, and finance teams have to make difficult edits.
So don’t imagine this list as one of grievances, but of processes and possibilities. Which do you think would’ve made Galaxy’s Edge better? Which are best left on the cutting room floor? What else did you see in The Art of Galaxy’s Edge that left you daydreaming?
1. Speeder Bike attraction
It’s pretty well known that the first conceptual iteration of a Star Wars land was of a much less ambitious scale than Galaxy’s Edge ended up being. Rumors persisted for years that in California, Tomorrowland would simply be “rewrapped” as a Star Wars land, upgrading the Lost Legend: STAR TOURS, parking the Millennium Falcon atop the old Rocket Jets platform, permanently converting Space Mountain to its Hyperspace overlay, and giving Buzz Lightyear a Clone Wars redesign. Likewise, Florida’s version of the land would’ve reportedly been built around its existing STAR TOURS, overtaking Echo Lake and creating an “Immersive Lite” land stylized as Tatooine.
In both iterations, it was long believed that one of the E-Ticket attractions Imagineers envisioned was a Speeder Bike roller coaster based on Luke & Leia’s escape through the forests of Endor in Return of the Jedi. (The ride likely would’ve replaced the Autopia in California and the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular in Florida).
The Art of Galaxy’s Edge makes it official, with Imagineer Margaret Kerrison stating explicitly, “In the early days, we talked about a fast-action speeder bike chase.” With guests straddling Speeders (in the style of the Modern Marvel: TRON Lightcycle Power Run), the Speeders would’ve “raced” through the crashed ruins of Star Destroyer (with old Tie Fighters hanging like bats), around alien landforms, and into the hairpin turns of a remote marketplace, bobbing and weaving around crowded stalls as Stormtroopers give chase.
Like all of “Star Wars Land 1.0,” this concept likely went out the window when Lucasfilm executives prodded Disney to think bigger. At the time, it was clear that the future of Star Wars lay in looking ahead, not backwards. Eschewing the “Wizarding World formula,” Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge was ultimately not set in any single, physical place from the series, but on an original planet where guests could live their own Star Wars adventure… all set in the timeline of the Disney-produced “sequel trilogy.”
Whether or not you agree with Disney’s decision to set their Star Wars land in the timeline of Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren rather than that of Luke, Leia, Han, and Darth Vader, it’s fun to imagine what a racing “Speeder Bike” experience might’ve looked like, and thanks to The Art of Galaxy’s Edge, we have a much better idea. Our chances of seeing this coaster come to life now seem very small, since even a well-disguised roller coaster would still look pretty out of place in the hyper-immersive Galaxy’s Edge. But frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if this concept went on to influence Shanghai’s TRON ride, or if this idea appears somewhere else in a new context…
2. Bounty Hunter Attraction
Concepts for a “Bounty Hunter” attraction are barely mentioned in The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but the mere suggestion of the ride is interesting in that it was nearly entirely unheard of by fans until the book’s publication! According to the concept art shared, the attraction would’ve seen eight guests board a Mandalorian bounty hunter’s ship, each straddling a turret (four on each side). Riders would then become outlaws themselves, on the run from the authorities (and surely, getting into some trouble on the way).
Of course, very little is known about the attraction. It’s fun to imagine if the pods might’ve been suspended from above, with guests actually traveling through physical scenes interspersed with wraparound screens. Ultimately, we may never know. This attraction probably co-existed with the Speeder Bike race in “Star Wars Land 1.0,” and likely would’ve featured or at least been an homage to famed Mandalorian Boba Fett.
What’s particularly interesting about the Bounty Hunter attraction concept is how relevant it feels today… Despite Disney and Lucasfilm’s agreement that their Star Wars land should look forward and not back, the heyday of the “sequel trilogy” has already waned. Poor response to J. J. Abrams’ concluding Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker, meant that the sequel trilogy sputtered out in a flurry of controversy and middling reviews, weirdly ending Star Wars’ nine-film, forty-year cinematic canon with lukewarm reception from both fans and general moviegoers.
Not coincidentally, the “future” of Star Wars turns out to be in… the past! And not just any past, but in a whole era of stories anchored by the popularity of a Mandalorian bounty hunter. Buoyed by the critical acclaim, viral appeal, and merchandising success of the Disney+ Original Series The Mandalorian (set 20 years before Disney’s sequel trilogy), the carefully-crafted and rigidly-maintained timeline set for Galaxy’s Edge looks likely to loosen up. And suddenly, being a Mandalorian bounty hunter looks like about the most sought-after Star Wars experience Disney Parks could offer. Whaddayaknow!
While these two attractions were part of a version of Star Wars land that hit the cutting room floor, our favorite concepts from the Galaxy’s Edge we know are on the next page… and frankly, either of them would still add a whole lot to the land today…
3. Elee
Of all the cancelled concepts designed for the two Star Wars lands, there’s probably none quite as legendary as “the Bantha ride.” Early concept art of the land showed a humongous, hairy creature lumbering through the marketplace of Batuu (bottom left in the image above). Believe it or not, this beast was not just a little artistic embellishment. It was meant to be real.
In fact, at the land’s official announcement, then-Parks-Chairman Bob Chapek stood before an artist’s concept of the creature, complete with rider-ready passenger howdahs on its back. Like the elephants of a maharajah, it seemed that these mammoth-like creatures would be carrying actual people. What was not clear is if they’d be large puppets merely serving as props for characters in a show… or if somehow, they’d actually move and carry guests.
According to a 2016 MiceChat Rumor Update, Imagineers had initially planned to build a sort of elevated “highway” following the berm that separates Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge from the Rivers of America. Fans’ interpretation at the time was that multiple massive wooly Banthas would be slowly lumbering along these dusty raised trails with guests seated on their backs!
Obviously, this would’ve been a hugely fun addition to the land for a few reasons. For one, it would’ve built out the “mythology” and “world” of Batuu, establishing it as a “real” place with actual aliens and creatures. Second, it would’ve added kinetic energy and motion to the otherwise quite-static land, solving one of fans’ most frequent complaints. Third, this “Bantha” ride concept would’ve added much-needed family capacity to the land – ideally, a height-restriction-free, cost-free thing to do, of which the land has very few. A mix of the Lost Legend: The PeopleMover and riding an elephant, this weirdo ride would’ve definitely been a fan-favorite.
Confirmation of the ride’s development and technology came from an unlikely place: Disney’s official “Imagineering in a Box” free online course offered by Khan Academy. In the course’s video lesson on Ride Systems, you’ll spot a prototype of the walking creature’s Animatronic skeleton and ride platform at about 1:23. What’s more, footage of an Imagineer testing the creature’s motion (embedded below) makes it clear that this attraction was still on the table quite a ways into the land’s development – at least until August 2015.
Look at that beautiful beastie crawl.
Can you imagine riding on the back of a Bantha through #GalaxysEdge? The cancelled third ride had echoes of the People Mover and Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland. pic.twitter.com/ZV3h2X6Qx3
— Nick Tierce (@nickytea) August 2, 2019
According to MiceChat, the plan was axed by Team Disney Orlando executives, who objected to its high development cost and its relatively low capacity. Then, without the research and development cost being split between the resorts, the ride fell out of California’s plans, too.
While we probably won’t ever learn the official reason for the ride’s cancellation, The Art of Galaxy’s Edge at last added new context to its scale. According to the book, the planned creature was not a Bantha after all, but a new Batuuan animal designed just for the land called a therii. At least in the iteration described and shown in the book, this big ole beast was named Elee (pronounced “Ellie”) and would’ve been a single autonomous Audio Animatronic that made a circuitous route around the marketplace of Batuu with guests on board.
Likely carrying eight guests at a time, Elee would probably have essentially been one “trackless” ride vehicle guided by wires embedded in the paths of the land or navigated by another local positioning system. Like the Buena Vista Street’s Red Car Trolley or the Horse-Drawn Carriages on Main Street, Elee would’ve been an “attraction” even for onlookers, with guests having to step out of the way of a massive, living creature with guests on its back. Of course it would’ve cool…
Admittedly, though, that differs a lot from images fans had of an elevated, PeopleMover-like track and a few dozen animatronic creatures on the path at once. If the “Bantha ride” was really just a single “Elee” all along, it’s a little easier to side with those who opted against the ride. Eight guests at a time and a single ride vehicle marching slowly through the land? We’re talking about a few dozen riders per hour – maybe a few hundred a day – in park’s that frequently see 50,000 daily. Yeah, that might not have matched the operational standard needed for the highly-sought-after Star Wars expansion at the number one and number three most-visited theme parks on Earth…
4. Kalikori Club
Another of the projects officially shared at the announcement of Galaxy’s Edge – but conspicuously missing from its launch – was a full-service restaurant. Indeed, the space for such a restaurant is physically set aside in the land just behind Oga’s Cantina. Disney’s own much-shared concept art revealed that this sit-down restaurant would feature alien lounge singers and musical acts fit for the rim of the galaxy.
The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge offers dozens of detailed pieces of concept art for the “Kalikori Club,” revealing more than we ever knew about the most-known unbuilt aspect of the land. At least as far as we can tell, the restaurant would’ve been two levels, with two different experiences – a kind of cool new twist on the “multi-room” experience of Be Our Guest Restaurant. The top floor would be a traditional table service restaurant built in a reclaimed Black Spire bathhouse. In the lobby, guests would even see a beautiful tank of crystal clear Batuuan water with a bit of plant-like kelp that once filtered the mineral baths.
Downstairs, however, would the Spice Den – a sort of underworld speakeasy. Descending down the steps and around the cylindrical water tank, guests would discover that that wasn’t kelp at all, but a single tentacle of a squid-like alien creature stirring the waters of the restaurant. The darker Spice Den was indeed a sort of high-roller’s nightclub where guests could watch lounge singers and alien acts in an otherworldly dinner show. Some concepts featured a club madame named Twi’lek, while later developments made Oga herself the club’s proprietor.
Ultimately, Galaxy’s Edge has a single quick-service restaurant – Docking Bay 7, with its quasi-alien offerings of Earth family favorites – and lots of opportunities to snack – like Kat Saka’s popcorn, Oga’s Cantina drinks, and of course, Blue Milk.
Since neither of the Wizarding Worlds, Cars Land, Pandora, nor Avengers Campus has a full-service restaurant, it might not even seem that odd that Galaxy’s Edge doesn’t, either… except that Disney itself released concept art of the Kalikori Club! (It’s not the first nor the last time that Disney’s hasty release of concept art early in a project’s development comes under scrutiny when half the stuff in it ends up missing from the final product.) It seems likely that this aspect of the land will come online some day, even under a different name or concept. The space is set aside, and it’s easy to imagine big-spenders on the Galactic Starcruiser experience wanting a table-service meal on their “excursion” to Batuu.
What Could Be…
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge may be among the most immersive and compellingly cinematic theme park lands ever built. But that doesn’t mean it’s complete. These four attractions are just a sampling of the concepts Disney designed on the road to the Galaxy’s Edge we know. From Audio-Animatronic bartenders to floating Milk Stands; cut characters to layers of mythology and history… incredible ideas went into the making of Galaxy’s Edge… and The Art of Galaxy’s Edge reveals a lot of it, including things that didn’t make it into the land’s final execution.
If you’re looking for juicy tidbits on rumors of sliced budgets, eliminated entertainment, and rejected rides, obviously an official Disney publication isn’t the place to find it. Sure, there are “almost-real” concepts and plenty of Blue Sky pieces of artwork. But The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a whole lot more than that. It’s a peek into the journey Imagineers take when they tackle projects of this scale – one where a whole lot of good ideas (and hopefully, way more bad ones) simply hit the editing room floor.
