Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is a themed area inspired by the Star Wars franchise in Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. It encompasses at each park, and is set in the village of Black Spire Outpost, on the remote frontier planet of Batuu, featuring attractions, shops, restaurants and entertainment based on elements of the fictional Star Wars universe.
The lands were announced on August 15, 2015, and construction at both parks began on April 14, 2016. The Disneyland version opened May 31, 2019, and Disney's Hollywood Studios' version opened August 29, 2019. Walt Disney Imagineering executive Scott Trowbridge supervised development and construction at both parks.
Development
In the early 2010s, Walt Disney Imagineering had initially developed plans for a Star Wars-themed land at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida. Based on characters and settings from the original trilogy of Star Wars films, including Tatooine and Endor, the area was to have encompassed the park's Echo Lake area, replacing the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Sounds Dangerous attractions and incorporating the existing Star Tours – The Adventures Continue.In 2014, the Walt Disney Company CEO and chairman Bob Iger slowed all of WDI's development on Star Wars-themed projects, postponing any creative development until the release of the sequel trilogy and anthology films. Iger explained: "I slowed it all down so what we come forward with will have a blend of the past, present, and maybe the future."
On August 15, 2015, after a creative shift in design, a Star Wars-themed land for both Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland was finally publicly announced by Iger at the D23 Expo. According to Iger, the unnamed land would be "occupied by many inhabitants: humanoids, aliens, and droids... the attractions, the entertainment, everything we create will be part of our storytelling. Nothing will be out of character or stray from the mythology." Bob Chapek, then-chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, stated that the land would "introduce you to a Star Wars planet you've never seen before – a gateway planet located on the outer rim, full of places and characters familiar and not so familiar."
In an interview for the winter 2015 issue of the official Disney fan club publication Disney twenty-three, senior creative leader Scott Trowbridge stated:
In March 2016, Iger announced that construction on both versions of the land would begin the following month, in April 2016. Construction began at both locations on April 14, 2016.
In February 2017, Iger stated that the lands were scheduled to open in 2019 at both Disneyland and Hollywood Studios.
In July 2017, at the D23 Expo, Chapek revealed that the themed lands would be called Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Chapek also announced that the Disneyland version would open first.
In November 2017, Trowbridge announced that the planet portrayed by the land is called Batuu, which appears in the 2018 novel Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances.
In May 2018, Trowbridge revealed the village in which the land is set would be called Black Spire Outpost, a location briefly mentioned in the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story. It was also announced that the Disneyland version of the land would open in summer 2019, followed by the Disney's Hollywood Studios version in late fall 2019. The names of the two new attractions at each location were announced in November 2018, during the D23 Destination D event held at Walt Disney World. A five-issue comic miniseries by Marvel Comics introduced the area's location in April 2019. Iger announced the opening dates for both locations on March 7, 2019.
The Disneyland version was dedicated on May 29, 2019. In attendance at the dedication ceremony were Iger, Star Wars creator George Lucas, and series actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Billy Dee Williams. The Disneyland version opened to the public on May 31, and because of its high popularity, a virtual queuing system was implemented on June 24. The land at Disney's Hollywood Studios opened on August 29, 2019.
Design
designed the project in collaboration with the Lucasfilm Story Group, with Imagineer Scott Trowbridge supervising the project, Asa Kalama and Chris Beatty serving as executive creative directors, Bryshere Casiano as the structural engineer, and Lucasfilm's Pablo Hidalgo and designer Doug Chiang of Industrial Light & Magic involved as consultants. Together, the team decided to set the lands on a new planet, located within the Outer Rim of the Unknown Regions. Described as a "remote frontier outpost", the planet Batuu has not previously appeared in other media, although it has existed within canon "for thousands and thousands of years." The team chose to create a newly designed world instead of using an existing planet from the films, such as Tatooine or Hoth, because those locations evoked a pre-existing familiarity with guests, with Trowbridge explaining, "We wanted to build new Star Wars stories, new Star Wars destinations." He says of the new planet,File:Dok-Ondar, Disneyland.jpg|thumb|The Ithorian Dok-Ondar can be found inside the shop Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities, pictured at the Disneyland location.
The development team drew inspiration from real-world locations, including Istanbul, Morocco, Jerusalem and Egypt and traveled there to study the architecture, culture, and weather. The team also cited Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for the original Star Wars trilogy as a basis for the architecture and aesthetic look of the land. The landscape of Galaxy's Edge features -tall spires standing among the rockwork that are intended to be the petrified remains of massive trees of an ancient forest; Imagineers based this landscape from the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. WDI used in-house virtual reality programs to realize where to use forced perspective and place thematic details in relation to sightlines to hide the park's show buildings from guest view. Disney consciously modified traditional theme park attributes throughout the lands—such as having signs written in the fictional Aurebesh language rather than English, and omitting attraction marquees and Star Wars-branded merchandise—as a way of maintaining the natural theming of the land. Being located in California and Florida, both iterations of Galaxy's Edge are situated at different latitudes and also face in separate cardinal directions; Disneyland has an east–west orientation and Disney's Hollywood Studios has a north–south orientation. This contrast in layout means both locations receive different amounts of sunlight at various angles throughout the seasonal year. As a result, both locations were designed with distinct shades of paint and color palettes in mind.
At the time of their openings, both locations of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge had one attraction: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which allows riders to control the Falcon during a "customized secret mission". This would be followed by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, that places guests into the middle of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance. Concept art depicted a full-size Millennium Falcon situated among alien buildings built into tall cliffs. Rise of the Resistance is a 28-minute long experience with more than 300 animated objects; housed within one of the largest show buildings Disney has ever built for a dark ride. Film actors Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, and Kipsang Rotich reprised their roles in the attraction as Rey, Poe Dameron, Finn, Kylo Ren, General Hux, and the voice of Nien Nunb, respectively. Frank Oz also reprised the role as the voice of Yoda, for a vocal cameo in Savi's Workshop.
In addition, the area features Oga's Cantina, which was the first location in Disneyland Park to sell alcoholic drinks to the public. The cantina's music is provided by R-3X, a droid that was first seen as RX-24 in Star Tours, and is now the cantina's DJ. Paul Reubens returned to voice the character.
The Black Spire Outpost marketplace contains a toy stall run by a Toydarian, an alien species that was seen on Tatooine in Episode I – The Phantom Menace. There is also a creature stall. A TIE Echelon, where Kylo Ren makes his daily appearance, was developed by Colin Trevorrow during his work on Episode IX before being replaced as the film's director. The Coca-Cola Company provided Star Wars-themed iterations of Coke products such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Diet Coke, Dasani, Powerade, and Minute-Maid to be served in the lands.
Narrative
The main story events of the land are set between the films Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, and depicts the presence of both the First Order and Resistance. However, park guests also have the opportunity to meet Star Wars characters from other timelines such as The Mandalorian and Grogu. Lucasfilm's Matt Martin stated that these characters are "visiting Batuu in the time that you know them from the series—or somewhere close to it—and you're getting to meet them there" and that Walt Disney Imagineering "has a pretty good way of ensuring that those characters don't intrude on each other."Beginning April 29, 2026, the location at Disneyland will expand its timeline to include the original trilogy era of Star Wars, and includes character appearances by Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia, joining to the existing character appearances by Ahsoka Tano, The Mandalorian, Grogu, and R2-D2. Guests will also continue have the opportunity to meet the sequel trilogy character Rey near the Rise of the Resistance attraction. Imagineer Asa Kalama stated; "That's part of the reason we designed this sort of neutral, Wild West sort of space town, because it allowed it to be a framework under which we could project different stories."