23 May 2018
Disney reveals opening dates for Star Wars attractions
BY Tom Anstey
Disney has released a new video for its Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attractions, confirming the additions will come first to California in the Summer of 2019 and then to Florida just a few months later.
Having been "cleared for arrival", the cinematic trailer shows animated concept imagery of the Star Wars-themed attractions, complete with TIE fighters from the franchise flying through the sky. On the right of the video is the Millennium Falcon – already confirmed to be a ride where guests pilot the starship and a battle with the First Order.
Both Star Wars-inspired lands at Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney World in Orlando will, according to Disney, “transport guests to a never-before-seen planet, a remote trading port and one of the last stops before Wild Space, where Star Wars characters and their stories come to life.”
The project is being led by Disney Imagineer Scott Trowbridge, who oversees everything Star Wars for the operator's parks. Speaking in November at IAAPA, Trowbridge promised the new experiences would “change the lens” on who is the protagonist in the theme park experience, something Disney wants to apply to all of its projects going forward.
“It would have been easy to tell you Luke’s story on Tatooine – an iconic scene from the first movie – but we all know those scenes and we all know Luke’s story. We know we’re not in that story and that we have no business being on that planet with Luke as some kind of weird voyeur,” he said.
“Instead what we want to do is create this universe, laying out and introducing new stories, characters and places, and to include you in these stories should you want to take part. There’s no obligation to do this but there’s a significant part of our audience who want to feel more engaged and more connected to the stories they are experiencing, so we’re trying to find ways to take that and extend it to our parks.”
Disney also has further plans for its Star Wars brand, including an immersive hotel experience "unlike anything that exists today" and a new Star Wars area as part of its €2bn (US$2.46bn, £1.77bn) expansion of Disneyland Paris.
The highly-anticipated Star Wars attractions will only add fuel to the Disney parks fire, with the recent TEA/AECOM Theme Index showing that the operator gained close to 10 million new visitors in 2017 with 150 million overall visitors – 84 million ahead of its nearest rival, Merlin Entertainments.
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