Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Star Wars makes me emotional. Like, really emotional. I had what my husband identified as a “panic attack” during Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If that sounds hyperbolic to you (it definitely should), I will direct you to reaction videos of me losing my damn mind while watching the trailers for The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I cannot help it. My love for this franchises is coded into my DNA; if I were to have a child, odds are they would be born saying the phrase “My hand are dirty too, what are you afraid of?” Everyone at the hospital would find that disturbing, but I would know that my kid is legit.
There’s something about the cinematic experience of Star Wars that gets to me, deep down in my heart. So imagine my surprise when I found myself crying–not “I was actually just choking up” but full-on bawling–over a photo of a theme park.
This ain’t no movie, this ain’t no trailer, but this pic ain’t fooling around. That’s a to-scale Millennium Falcon, nestled within the beautifully lush and mountainous terrain of Disney’s upcoming Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park. Disney parks on both coasts will each get a 14-acre addition that will transport hyperventilating visitors and their frustrated families to a totally new planet in Star Wars lore (presumably located on the edge of the galaxy). Galaxy’s Edge, which is slated to open summer 2019, will include two rides: one will drop you in the middle of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance on the hangar of a Star Destroyer, and the other allows you to pilot the Millennium Falcon on a mission. And in addition to the rides, the rest of those acres will be filled with creatures, droids, and characters from the SW universe as well as shops and restaurants selling/serving in-universe goods/food.
Galaxy’s Edge represents Disney rising to meet The Wizarding World of Harry Potter over at rival park Universal Studios. That themed area, styled mostly after the Harry Potter film series, changed the way people thought of theme parks when it opened in 2010. Basically, Universal totally upstaged Disney–and Disney scrambled. Disney looked around for hot properties to turn into a massive, Wizarding World-style experience and, since it was 2010, it saw… Avatar. Disney had no idea that:
- They would acquire Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise just a few years later
- Avatar filmmaker James Cameron would take f o r e v e r to get any of his bajillion Avatar sequels off the ground (Avatar 2 was bumped back from a 2014 release to a 2020 release)
- Everyone would aggressively stop caring about Avatar
But once Disney’s plans were put in motion, they couldn’t stop them and the 12-acre Pandora–The World of Avatar attraction opened as part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom in May 2017. Considering how big a deal Harry Potter still is (three films have been released in the HP franchise since Avatar came out almost 8 years ago), Pandora just isn’t on the same level as the Wizarding World.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, though? That’s real competition.
And unlike the Wizarding World, Galaxy’s Edge isn’t just recreating what fans have seen on-screen or read in various books. Instead of taking tourists to Tatooine or Hoth, Galaxy’s Edge has been created to tell a totally new story on a new planet. One of the main selling points is the (presumably) opt-in adventure you will go on just by stepping foot in the park; based on how well you do on the Millennium Falcon ride or how you interact with the characters around you, you–like, specifically you–will earn a reputation as either a hotshot pilot flush with credits or a troublemaker with a bounty on their head.
I always hear people say that video games are the future of movies, but Galaxy’s Edge, which reframes the actual world around your physical body, seems like the real deal. This isn’t just giving you control over an avatar on a screen; this park brakes through the screen and makes you the avatar. This even outdoes virtual reality; for the time you’re in Galaxy’s Edge, Star Wars will be your actual reality.
This is why I cried over a photo. This park is a literal dream come true. This park will allow me to physically interact with my favorite franchise of all time. It will put me in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, my favorite thing in all of existence. The closest I’ve come so far was seeing one of the actual models used during the original trilogy. No matter how hard I tried, I could not climb into this cockpit.
I love the movies, but Galaxy’s Edge is offering the kind of experience I have spent my entire life just assuming could never happen. If movie studios are looking to up fan engagement like never before, dropping the big bucks to create a totally immersive experience like Wizarding World, Pandora, and Galaxy’s Edge seems like the way to go. I could easily see the Marvel and DC shared cinematic universes getting similar attractions, and even non-sci-fi/fantasy series like Fast & Furious or James Bond. We could even get to experience a safe, theme park version of The Hunger Games before our world descends into the actual Hunger Games!
Still, as awesome as these parks look, I actually don’t think they’re going to replace movies outright (the same way that video games will never totally replace film). The main reason I love Star Wars is the story and characters. I don’t love the Millennium Falcon because of how it looks. I love it because of its role in the films and the heroes and moments it holds within its kitbashed corridors. And I know that whatever Rian Johnson has in store for Luke, Rey, Leia, and the rest in The Last Jedi will be lightyears more engaging than whatever I bumble into while wandering around a wonderfully immersive theme park.
I think it’s more accurate to say that Galaxy’s Edge is the future of theme parks. It’s no longer enough to slap a known property on top of an existing, decades-old ride (like the Tower of Terror’s Guardians of the Galaxy makeover). Theme parks are upping their game considerably, becoming movies that you can actually walk around inside. If that’s what it takes to draw in new visitors, then so be it. After all, I’ve never given much thought to flying to Orlando as an adult. Now, after the Galaxy’s Edge reveal, it’s practically all I can think about.
