A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
In October of 2012, Star Wars fans felt a disturbance in the force—in an unprecedented move, Lucasfilm had sold the rights for the entirety of the Star Wars universe to the Walt Disney Company. It was a risky move for both parties, but one that has paid off with untold dividends for Disney. While the success of films like The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Rogue One have proved undeniable (despite a sometimes very-vocal fanbase), fans were quick to guess that Disney had other plans in mind for Star Wars besides film trilogies and TV shows.
Buzz began immediately that Star Wars Land was on the way.
Image: Disney
At the 2015 D23 Expo, the excitement was confirmed with the announcement that this new land would be something unlike theme park guests had ever seen before. Further details emerged in 2017 as the new expansion was christened Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, estimated to open in late fall 2019 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with a summer opening for its Disneyland counterpart.
Unlike park expansions of the past—even those as recent as Toy Story Land—Galaxy’s Edge would cross a new frontier for Disney Imagineering, a theme park experience larger and more immersive than any predecessor, with cutting edge attractions, new concepts for merchandise and dining, and even its own fully-inclusive resort.
For Disney fans who aren’t really into Star Wars, there’s been a temptation to brush off Galaxy’s Edge as just another park expansion—an over-zealous fandom that will fizzle out. The truth is the effects of this new land are going to be unignorable throughout The Most Magical Place on Earth. Almost certainly, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is going to change the face of Walt Disney World forever. Here are 10 reasons why…
1. Fresh life for Disney’s Hollywood Studios
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Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been a park with a fascinating but complicated past. Originally founded as both a cinema-themed escape and working movie/animation studio (Disney-MGM Studios), the park has transformed dramatically over the years. After losing its initial ties to MGM studios, Disney’s Hollywood Studios experienced a short golden age as a must-visit park with exciting new attractions like The Hollywood Tower of Terror and The AeroSmith Rockin’ Roller Coaster.
While it still maintains some of the finest attractions Disney had ever constructed (including Star Tours), its popularity dwindled as its backlot vision muddied. Disney shut down their satellite animation studio, and the park shifted from the exploration of movie-making to promoting in-house intellectual properties. By 2015, it had become Disney World’s least popular destination, easily written off as a half-day experience. Rumors even abounded that the name might change, though these have since been disproven.
Enter Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Image: Disney
The opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s World of Pandora proved that when Disney sets their mind to new innovation, fans will come out in droves. Even a year after opening day, lines for Pandora’s Avatar: Flight of Passage regularly linger in the multi-hour range. If fans arrived with such force to experience the world of James Cameron’s Avatar—a film with seriously mixed reception—there’s no doubt crowds are going to be intense for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Just as Disney’s Animal Kingdom surged in attendance its opening year, Disney’s Hollywood Studios could likely receive the same shocking boost.
While huge crowds are a daunting thing to consider, there is a positive to it—fresh life for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney will need other places for visitors to spread throughout the park, a possibility they already prepared for with the arrival of Toy Story Land. Success for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will likely mean a fresh inbreathing of development for the rest of Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
2. A very different type of park expansion
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There’s no doubt that the development of both The World of Pandora and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge came about partially as a response to Disney’s primary competitor, Universal Studios Orlando. Universal’s acquiring of the theme park rights to Harry Potter is a fascinating story and of itself, but what it did with those rights played a huge part in shifts at Disney.
Universal’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is undoubtedly one of the most richly detailed, immersive theme park lands ever built, and Universal managed to pull this off not just at Islands of Adventure but then doubled their success with the Diagon Alley expansion at Universal Studios Orlando—connecting both parks with an in-world Hogwart’s Express. Making sure they didn’t lose another major film franchise to Universal was one of Disney’s prime motivators for acquiring the rights to James Cameron’s Avatar. More importantly, however, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter set the bar spectacularly high for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Disney could easily have added a simple Star Wars themed expansion to Hollywood Studios. Instead, they are going for gold. Guests responded en force to the immersive nature of Pandora. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be the largest theme park expansion ever brought to Walt Disney World, and it won’t be built to surround movie-merchandise shops, fandom photo ops, and warehouses hiding simulators. Guests arriving at Galaxy’s Edge’s planet Batuu won’t just be spectators of Star Wars fandom—they will become part of the very fabric of that story.
3. Theming unlike we’ve seen before
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In Disney’s World of Pandora, Imagineers went out of their way to transport visitors to another world. From food to merchandise, immersion was the goal. With Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s brightest minds are taking things even further.
In Galaxy’s Edge, imagineers have described a theme park experience where bounty hunters, stormtroopers, alien locals, and Resistance fighters will intermingle seamlessly with guests. In the past, theme park guests might have felt like unseen spectators peeking in on a fantasy world. In Galaxy’s Edge, you will become a very part of Batuu’s atmosphere.
As a bustling spaceport, Batuu will be no stranger to busy streets and huge groups of tourists, and guests will find themselves caught smack in the middle of the war between The First Order and The Resistance to claim this unique outpost. Every element of the land’s design has been finely tuned to contribute to this and make it feel as immersive as possible. The concept remains similar to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but with a new unexpected element—a story where guest actions have consequences.
4. Taking attractions to the next level
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We’ll get to what those consequences are shortly, but the places where guests will be able to make these choices start at Galaxy’s Edge’s two flagship attractions: a battle against the First Order and the opportunity to pilot The Millennium Falcon itself.
In the first attraction, guests will find themselves swept away from the immediate area of Batuu by troop transport, taken directly into the war between The Resistance and The First Order. While details on this attraction have been scarce, Imagineers have hinted strongly that guests will have choices to make regarding allegiance to either The Resistance or The First Order. This multi-part simulation experience will almost certainly push the boundaries of what guests thought was possible in a Disney ride.
As for the other attraction, even well before Disney purchased Star Wars, rumors had long circulated that Disney overlords were exploring ideas for a Millennium Falcon attraction. Most guests expected something along the lines of Star Tours, but it looks like The Millennium Falcon experience is going to be something wholly unique. Pulling from the vast well of previous attractions with “gamified” elements (such as Test Track and Toy Story Mania), as well as the immersive “quest” feel of Avatar: Flight of Passage, guests will partner together to pilot the Falcon. You will walk through its halls then be given a position within the ship—piloting, co-piloting, navigating, or manning the guns. Details are still being released, but judging by the set-up of similar attractions like Mission: Space, there are a lot of possibilities.
Most importantly, Disney has confirmed that guest actions on this attraction will have consequences, whether you’re the best pilot in the galaxy or leave the poor Falcon as a crumpled hunk of junk. The experience will feel very personal to your group, and the stakes are high—so high, they will affect the remainder of your time in the park.
5. The faction system
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At Star Wars Celebration 2017, Disney Imagineer Asa Kalama said it plainly: “Your choices matter,” within Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
How you are perceived by characters, droids, and interactive items within Galaxy’s Edge will be determined by your choices on the two attractions. Stormtroopers may hassle you for suspected ties to The Resistance. Bounty hunters may stalk you in the cantina if you did a little-too-good-of-a-job on that Millennium Falcon smuggling run. Locals might cheer your entry or give you sideways looks (literally sideways, in the case of some of the aliens, we suppose). Once again, the possibilities are endless.
We’ve dived into the concepts behind the faction system before, and some of our readers found the idea outlandish. How could Disney possibly customize an experience that much for individual guests? While it may seem improbable, the truth is, the faction system described for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is not that far-fetched for those familiar with playing MMORPG video games—some examples being World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and even Star Wars: The Old Republic. In these open world games, thousands of players inhabiting the same space somehow experience unique quests and stories, and their actions affect how they are perceived by in-world-characters of various factions.
Image: Disney
We’ve explored before how the concept development for Galaxy’s Edge has sounded suspiciously similar to the way a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game functions, with choices a role-player makes having consequence on their standing. From the advent of the Magic Band, Disney has long hinted their intentions to use new technology to personalize guest experiences. We already see this in simple Easter Eggs like the way guest names pop up on posters in the Rockin’ Roller Coaster or the way guests can customize different cars on Test Track. Disney also tested this technology with their Legends of Frontierland experience, where guests were given a storyline to follow and characters to interact with in the Magic Kingdom. The point is storytelling and interactive elements will certainly play a big part in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
6. A whole new take on merchandise and dining
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Speaking of in-world character experiences, Galaxy’s Edge’s mission for immersion isn’t going to stop at attractions. The land’s merchandise shops and dining location, Oga’s Cantina, will also be set entirely in-world, complete with “local guests” intermingling with the crowd. At the cantina, while atmosphere components like musical entertainment from RX-24 will likely be animatronic based, it sounds like this location is going to possibly redefine the concept of character dining with bounty hunters, smugglers, and more interacting with guests—oh, and Disney has already hinted that the aforementioned faction system will affect character encounters at the cantina.
In a unique move, Galaxy’s Edge also will not host traditional Star Wars merchandise locations. You’ll need to go elsewhere in Disney’s Hollywood Studios to get standard Star Wars action figures, t-shirts, and lightsaber lamps. Instead, Galaxy’s Edge will have in-world shops and merchant stalls where toys and items sold will look like they truly belong in the Star Wars universe. Sounds a bit like Epcot’s World Showcase meets a galaxy far, far away!
7. A resort experience like no other
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Disney isn’t stopping with Galaxy’s Edge proper. As promised, they are also opening a fully Star Wars themed resort with an unprecedented twist. At the new resort adjacent to Galaxy’s Edge, guests will have another opportunity to be fully immersed in Star Wars. We aren’t just talking normal theme park immersion either. Remember the video gaming references? What Disney is describing sounds like a full-on role-playing experience.
Guests in the resort will “board a starship” touring the galaxy for the duration of their stay. Even the windows in guest rooms will have views of space rather than parking lots and pedestrians. While we’re not sure how they’ll pull this off, we’re told guests will even have Star Wars appropriate clothes they can wear during their stay (cosplayers rejoice!) possibly similar to the way costume rentals work at a Renaissance Festival. Every element will be designed to make guests feel like they are on a space cruise. WOW.
Prices will definitely be expensive, but that’s because guests aren’t just paying for a room. They will be paying for an all-inclusive adventure, possibly even with a core story. It also sounds likely that this experience could include dining and park tickets, similar to the one-price-for-all structure common on cruises. We will have to wait and see, but it sounds like the stay of a lifetime!
8. New options for Walt Disney World transportation
Image: Disney
Galaxy’s Edge is also changing the landscape of Walt Disney World transportation. Getting around in the Most Magical Place on Earth has traditionally stayed mostly the same the last two decades: monorails, busses, and friendship boats. With an expansion as massive as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney has finally set to work improving their transportation infrastructure to handle the high guest demand.
Both Disney’s friendship boats and the bus stations for Disney’s Hollywood Studios have seen improvement and renovations so far. The resort’s Minnie Van ridesharing service has expanded as well, but the biggest change, however, is the arrival of Disney’s Skyliner gondola service. These incredibly-Disney-appropriate gondolas will provide new guest transportation routes between Disney’s Art of Animation and Pop Century Resorts, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, Epcot, and finally Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The Skyliner will also connect to Disney’s new Riviera resort, one of several expansions across the property to meet higher guest capacities. It looks like the Skyliner will be a crucial mode of transportation for fans looking to visit Galaxy’s Edge.
9. The changes won’t be limited to Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Image: The VOID
It’s one thing for shifts to take place in and around Disney’s Hollywood Studios. However, we are convinced the arrival of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is going to change Walt Disney World as a whole. In Disney Springs, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire slipped in under the radar as what might be the best attraction at Walt Disney World pre-Galaxy’s Edge. The hyper-reality adventure has been so successful, other VOID experiences for films like Wreck It Ralph are on the way, giving guests and locals new reasons for visiting Disney Springs.
Disney has always hosted Star Wars related events, but the buzz of Galaxy’s Edge could have a very similar effect to Harry Potter’s influence at Universal—new Star Wars-related shops and experiences well beyond Hollywood Studios, like special events, tours, and upcharge experiences will almost certainly multiply. Star Wars movie premieres also might trigger special activities throughout Walt Disney World.
Most of all, increased attendance from the Galaxy’s Edge hype will definitely factor into the Walt Disney World experience, with both positive and negative effects. It’s already difficult enough to pin down Disney’s ever-changing off-season these days. The huge influx of guests hoping to check out Galaxy’s Edge will definitely affect that, prompting crowd shifts in other parks. The positive side is that strong attendance means a healthy budget for Disney, which will help development throughout the resort.
10. A franchise with near-endless potential
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There have been plenty of fears that Star Wars as a franchise will burn itself out far too soon. Disney certainly started out with an enthusiastic schedule of films and television programs slated for what felt like the next century. Some of that momentum slowed with the mixed success of films like Solo: A Star Wars Story and issues with small but outspoken pockets of toxic fandom.
However, anyone who is familiar with the Star Wars Expanded Universe—the books, comics, video games, and cartoons that came well before the Disney deal– will know that there is endless potential where this galaxy far, far away could go. Tales of the Old Republic are one prime area where the Star Wars franchise could spread its wings to new territory and set off a whole new blaze of fandom. The years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens are ripe for fresh storytelling as well, and more and more, Disney has started pulling beloved characters and stories from the original expanded universe and adapting them to their new canon. Any new element of the Star Wars franchise booming with success could affect future expansions and attractions at Galaxy’s Edge. The stars are the limit, and we are certain Galaxy’s Edge will affect the course of Walt Disney World for many long years to come.
What part of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge are you looking the most forward to?
