Let’s start with the “need to know.” There are changes coming to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (aka Star Wars Land) at Disneyland. So far, nothing has been announced for Walt Disney World. These changes bring in characters and storylines that are otherwise disconnected from the Batuu we’ve known thus far (except for those other characters who didn’t make sense in that timeframe anyways), and they’re landing April 29, 2026.
Ya know what, let’s just talk about the core changes, then we’ll circle back to what these changes really mean and why they’re significant…
Darth Vader will appear and search for Luke Skywalker. This will presumably be in the same style as the current “show” where Kylo Ren searches for the Resistance.
Luke Skywalker will roam the outpost. From the previous item, we can infer this will be a Luke from the original trilogy, sometime between the end of Episodes IV and VI. Give that right hand a firm shake to figure out which side of the Episode V end we’re on. (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT SPOIL STAR WARS DETAILS FOR THE KIDS AROUND YOU.)
Leia Organa and Han Solo will appear in the land, too. Han will be “tempted by the local cantina,” and I swear if he doesn’t manage to ever walk himself the 10 feet to get there, it’s just not even clear what this is all for (and yes, DJ R-3X should play the Cheers theme when Han walks in).
Ahsoka Tano, The Mandalorian and Grogu, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and Rey will still be around. Based on this, it sounds like Vi Moradi will be dropped (I’ve still seen her on recent visits in Florida, at least).
Some stores will change. First Order Cargo will become Black Spire Surplus, and there will be small changes to Droid Depot and Dok-Ondar’s.
John Williams music will be heard throughout the land. Sorry, War Horse fans, it’s gonna be Star Wars music composed by John Williams throughout the land. In its current iteration, the land has background sounds but no music, and this is an opportune time to switch over to why this all matters…
Timeline? We Don't Need No Kriffing Timeline!
Note: A version of this commentary originally appeared in our newsletter.
So, Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland—not Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World—is getting a (partial?) "timeline" update. This will bring new characters—like Luke, Han, and Leia—and John Williams scores into the land, along with some updates to a few of the stores. Seemingly, the bulk of the land will shift in timeframe to the original trilogy years, while the area near Rise of the Resistance will remain sequel-trilogy-era, as Rey will still hang out there.
I think most newsletter readers understand why this is "big", but I want to both explain to the uninitiated why it matters while also granting myself some editorial freedom to rant write about my own thoughts.
These changes are "major" because they abandon a core tenet of the land—that it's set in a specific time and place in the Star Wars universe.
Just as Toy Story Land is set in Andy’s Backyard (but don’t ask me why Andy has a toy called "Toy Story Mania", that's none of my business...and what about the scale of the meet-and-greet characters? what happened there?), Galaxy’s Edge is set in Black Spire Outpost on the planet of Batuu. And, in the Star Wars timeline, it's set between Episodes VIII and IX of Star Wars.
Historically...theoretically...every detail of the land was meant to build the illusion that this was an actual place at an actual time with actual locals who spoke their actual language:
Them: Bright Suns, Traveler!
Me: huh? *looks up, gets blinded* oh jeez you did warn me!
This is also why there's only background sounds, not music, except outside the bar and in at least one spot within hearing range of a "local" "radio."
This was a fun idea in theory (I like it!), but it comes with lots of little strings.
Theoretically, your merchandise is limited to things that would be created "in world" at the time. So, you can't have anything that says "Star Wars" because they don't call themselves that (that would be as sensible as Andy buying a toy that said "Toy Story"!).
You also have to give all the food quirky names. And your Coke bottles have to be oddly shaped (because...alien hands?). And people steal your silverware. The Millennium Falcon ride can't have any iconic storylines because I saw those movies and at no point did a terrified 4-year-old pilot the ship. You can't have your most in-demand characters because they're not a part of the story at this time and place.
And everyone who visits your land on multiple days is forced to endure the psychological torment of reliving the same story over and over again while no one else seems to notice. (I always wanted the land to have ongoing, changing storylines. I thought having one side or the other take over the entire land for a few months could be cool, for example.)
Anyways, while LARPing seems like something that would catch on among theme park folk, it turns out people don’t want to come to theme parks in order to do more work. Most of them probably LARP enough in their everyday lives (stop laughing, it’s not funny), and when they come to theme parks they just want to meet the cool characters they see in the movies they like.
Cracks started to show pretty quickly, and by 2022 Disney was welcoming characters from other eras into the land. But it wouldn't be until 2023 when my dreams for the perfectly immersive land were really destroyed. That's when Disney was forced to admit the hardcore Star Wars fanbase wasn’t substantial enough to support Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Lots of people really like Star Wars, but few care about it to the depth required to maintain some sort of collective illusion (let alone pay for that maintenance).
But what of Galaxy's Edge? We had to know by 2023 that we wouldn't get "more" immersion. The original product was still good though, right? Well, I'd say Galaxy’s Edge settled into an uncanny valley.
It felt place-like enough to be realistic, but in doing so, the barriers to it being an actual place became jarring. That is, Disney went so far out of its way to tell us this was a real place, that it pains me to be constantly recognizing it wasn't.
A good example of this is the whole "First Order is hunting for the Resistance" storyline. It’s overall pretty cool that we have one group of characters roaming the land, hunting for another. But the illusion runs up against the fact that I can point toward Rise of the Resistance (or the Millennium Falcon) and shout "there! that's them! right there! go get them and end this shared recurring nightmare!" But the only response I'd get is the pre-recorded "Move along!" from a Stormtrooper.
(As an aside, I'd point to places like Pandora and Diagon Alley as places that avoid any sort of uncanny valley problem. Emily points out to me that there's a sense that guests are allowed to choose how invested they want to be in the "story" in these places, while Galaxy's Edge feels like it goes out of its way to impose the story on you.)
So, with only two directions to claw ourselves out of the uncanny valley—and one eliminated by the failure of Galactic Starcruiser—we're left to go the other direction. Dismantle the illusion (okay, fine, dramatic, they aren't dismantling it). That's the path Disney has chosen—but only in Disneyland ("Stay Uncanny, Florida").
To be clear, the concept of little in-world storylines isn’t going away—and that's a good thing! It'll be fun to have Darth Vader hunting for Luke. And the respective portions of the land are going to be designed to mostly immerse you in the respective timelines. The addition of proper scoring, using the John Williams music from the films, is probably the biggest tell that we're leaving the heart of the old philosophy behind.
By acknowledging "yea, this is a theme park land," (where magic can happen!) it takes pressure off of the entire illusion. One of the downsides to the constant hammering of "immersion. immersion. immersion." is that it takes a lot of cognitive load for in-the-know guests to keep up with the immersion, and out-of-the-know guests just get confused or don't care to begin with.
The spin from Disney reflects that this isn't a wholesale abandonment of immersion, nor should it be. But it is undeniably a step toward a more traditional form of "immersion," where you can meet your favorite characters regardless of whether their scale or temporality makes sense and where you can hear your favorite theme songs while doing it.
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