Disney passholders at Disneyland park in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida may remember the first time when Disney opened the gates to their newest and largest expansion to the parks, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Galaxy’s Edge invited us to explore a brand-new settlement known as Black Spire Outpost on the planet of Batuu. Park goers were given the opportunity to live out their Star Wars fantasies by either piloting the Millennium Falcon on Smuggler’s Run, building your own lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop, or just taking a stroll through Black Spire’s marketplace.
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For many fans, it was a surreal moment to see all the amount of work and details that Imagineers put into the land to bring it to life. Now the latest installment from the Disney Parks Blog series, Behind the Magic, shares the experiences and creative process from the Imagineers that brought us Batuu.
Behind The Magic of Galaxy’s Edge
In the video above, we see Walt Disney Imagineering, Scott Trowbridge, and Lucasfilm’s Doug Chiang explain their approach in bringing their childhood fantasy from simple ideas to an immersive world just ripe for a Star Wars adventure. Their mindset with the land was not to create a memory of Star Wars but to make you an actual citizen of the galaxy.
Even the smallest details like blaster marks on the wall have a story behind it, give us the illusion that Black Spire outpost is grounded in reality. Scott explains that they wanted to give a sense of mystery and possibilities to parkgoers as you walk through the park.
As someone who once held an annual pass to Disneyland before the shutdowns, Galaxy’s Edge was a blast to experience as a fan. Seeing a life size version of the Falcon, having blue milk at the cantina, and building my very own droid were just some of the memorable highlights. The cast members at the park were the true stars of Batuu as they added to my experience. Many of them played into their roles as residents of Batuu and they made you feel welcomed to the galaxy.
The Stormtroopers were fun to interact with especially if you had a lightsaber or a droid on you. My only regret was not waking up early enough to get a boarding pass to ride The Rise of The Resistance when it first opened in January last year since getting a pass was almost impossible.
Despite enjoying Galaxy’s Edge for what the land was, there were a few areas in the land that felt empty. Disneyland is known to immerse you in a world with your favorite characters and frequent shows or parades, Galaxy’s Edge lacked that at times. It left me with wanting more out of the land but it seems that was harder to do since Batuu is set specifically to the sequel trilogy timeline.
Hopefully, that will change in the future thanks to the hit series The Mandalorian, as the show has given Star Wars a new life. It would be amazing to see Din and Grogu walking around the park, having jobs on Smuggler’s Run that could relate back to the show.
The only way that could happen is if Disney decides to break their canon and incorporate other characters into the land. That may not be far from reach as Disney is doubling down on the timeline the Mandalorian was created with several spin-off series connecting to each other.
They could add events on Batuu relating to each new series to hype up excitement for the shows. Eventually, we’ll get something new to Galaxy’s Edge in the future when the parks reopen on the west coast, and never say never, as Walt Disney once said, “Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
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