FANTASTIC WORLDS: A Land-by-Land Tour of Park Lore’s Blue Sky, Built-Out, Armchair Imagineered Disney Park

STAR WARS: Galaxy’s Edge

Frankly, there’s no better fit for Fantastic Worlds than Star Wars. How could Fantastic Worlds – ostensibly, a proud, avowed Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars park create incredible, far-flung places and not make Star Wars a part of it? And though you may disagree with my way of bringing Star Wars into Fantastic Worlds, hear me out… I’d argue that Galaxy’s Edge plays better in this park than anywhere else, and that’s before the consequential changes I made to its aesthetic and ride lineup…

Inspiration & Concept

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, it was a foregone conclusion that their acquisition of Star Wars – one of the most consequential and high-earning entertainment franchises in history – would ripple through Disney’s theme parks. When the inevitable announcement came in 2015 – that twin, 14-acre Star Wars lands would join Disneyland Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios – it seemed that Disney had managed to do the unthinkable: they had finally found the IP source of a “Living Land” to compete with Universal’s Wizarding World.

Fast-forward four years to the nearly-simultaneous 2019 openings of copies of Galaxy’s Edge. Is Disney’s Star Wars land concept the most ambitious, immersive, and incredible “Living Lands” in the industry? Well… it depends on whom you ask.

Listen – there are those who detest the concept and / or execution of Galaxy’s Edge. And for hardcore Star Wars fans, it’s not difficult to see why. Though exhaustingly committed to its own in-universe mythology, the land has been controversial. Disney made a few foundational choices in the development of this land that, in retrospect, either went a step too far or a step in the wrong direction entirely.

Certainly one is that Disney’s Star Wars land is set on an original planet not seen in the films. Ostensibly, this is because Disney wants you to “live your own Star Wars adventure” and a from-scratch place gives you the canvas to do that. Realistically, it’s because in the highly-academic timeline of Star Wars, no single place could achieve the impossible overlap of making everyone happy, feeling “Star Wars-y,” and translating to a theme park environment where high capacity restaurants, gargantuan showbuildings, retail spaces, shade, meet-and-greets, and restrooms have to coexist exist.

So – as the ultimately arbitors of what’s “canon” anyway – they invented one! In other words, Batuu gave Imagineers a canvas to create a master-planned little outpost with the shops, restaurants, crowd-ready paths, internal navigation, embedded stages, and hidden showbuildings they require without having to ret-con and reverse engineer it into an existing Star Wars locale.

At the same time, that allowed designers to pluck “cantinas” and architectural flourishes and geology and “used future” aesthetic from the Star Wars‘ style book. When it works, the end result clearly architecturally communicates “Star Wars” even though it’s technically a fresh world, while checking off all the must-haves of a theme park.

A more cumbersome issue for many: Galaxy’s Edge is set in the Disney-produced “sequel trilogy” timeline and not in the timeline of the “original trilogy.” In fact, for those in-the-know, Batuu is “locked” on a single, specific day that occurs between Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. That made sense when Disney’s “sequel trilogy” was the biggest thing happening, but feels somewhat silly now that the “sequel trilogy” has concluded (and with the critical thud that was Rise of Skywalker, souring the taste of “Disney Star Wars” for many). Ironically, pretty much any high profile Star Wars projects today are set back in the “original trilogy” era that would’ve probably made more long-term sense as the land’s basis anyway.

Speaking of which, in 2022, Disneyland’s version of the land did announce a sort of mea culpa white flag that would allow characters from Star Wars‘ current projects – like The Mandolorian and The Book of Boba Fett – to mingle with crowds in the land (a timeline concession that was once verboten and left Disney selling Grogu plush in Frontierland since he was somehow more anachronistic in Galaxy’s Edge). So in California, you might see Boba Fett wandering the markets of Batuu… but a Millennium Falcon ride without Han Solo or Chewbacca? An escape from a Star Destroyer without Darth Vader?

A final “issue” with Galaxy’s Edge as it exists in Florida and California is that it doesn’t have the right spread of attractions. Yes, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is arguably the most immersive Disney Parks experience on Earth, and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is a fine supporting D-Ticket.

But the land has zero attractions without a height requirement or paywalled entry. It’s also plagued with promises that never came to be – from unbuilt restaurants to cancelled rides and an absolutely astounding lack of entertainment – that leave the land feeling somewhat barren, integrated stages quiet, and hourly Cast Members “blessed” to step up and invent theatrical personas for themselves without the protection of the actor’s union.

Given all that, it’s easy to see why, for many Star Wars aficianados, Galaxy’s Edge leaves something to be desired. I’ll be honest: I didn’t “correct” that. I played around with basically reskinning Galaxy’s Edge as the Naboo city of Theed, which I do think is reasonably “theme park-able” would be fit the vaguely-nautical Fantastic Worlds well, but ultimately I just don’t know enough about Star Wars lore to know when a Naboo version of the land would be set or what would belong there.

So in the spirit of imagining what a third gate in California or a fifth in Florida could’ve been, I decided to use Galaxy’s Edge, but to rebalance it and hopefully use its spaces and experiences to better effect. Here’s what I came up with…

Experience

In (re)approaching Galaxy’s Edge, I was really struck by the concept art above and the piece at the top of the page, which I realize would only ever have been marketing collateral as opposed to an actual depiction of a finished product…

But still, I think there’s so much to love about viewing Black Spire Outpost as less of a desert and more of a forest valley; to have actual, towering, petrified trees, not just their whittled-down husks. I totally understand why Disneyland went to great lengths to shield Galaxy’s Edge from its Rivers of America (and vice versa), but how beautiful is the version of Batuu above, wiith water spilling down rocky shores? Domed structures built into coastal rocks? Sunlight streaming through the dense forests? Fantastic Worlds offered the opportunity to embrace that; for this to be the forested, green, rocky land on the Sea of Stars; a misty and living and multi-story place with towering trees instead of a dry desert one.

One common complaint about Batuu is that it’s an impoverished place; a sort of dusty, unhappy, world that’s very Star Wars, but a staggering, stark contrast to the rest of Disneyland. I get that that’s the Star Wars aesthetic and the narrative result of a land where the Resistance has set up a base camp and the fascist First Order has come to enact martial law and sniff them out. But I do think there’s also a happier medium than the existing lands find.

For example, in the artwork at the top of this section, you can see such vivid colors in the village marketplace… it reminds me of Joe Rohde’s reflection on Animal Kingdom’s Africa – where, he noted, “the building are old and weathered, but not intended to look neglected, and there’s lots of evidence of reutilization and upcycling […] so people are striving here.”

So what doesn’t show on the map is my imagined goal of sort of re-orienting Batuu from an impoverished, rough, dry outpost of maurauders and thieves (as Star-Wars-y as it may be) to a crafty, forested town of craftsmen and intergalactic travelers, perhaps drawn to this planet as we might be drawn to a National Park, with Black Spire Outpost as the Visitor’s Center for this planet of natural wonders. That foundational and environmental refocus hopefully also strengthens the expanded attraction list…

Obviously, the anchor remains STAR WARS: Rise of the Resistance, which is pretty indisputably the biggest attraction Disney Imagineers have ever designed, if not the best. A next-generation, totally immersive, multi-ride-system attraction we’ve taken to labeled a “U-Ticket,” Rise of the Resistance is unbeatable. (If it makes you happier, you can white out “Resistance” and write in “Rebellion” and imagine that I changed the land’s setting to the “original trilogy,” and that would be fine.)

Since I already used the ride system for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in Fantastic Worlds (to, I feel, better effect!), I needed a new secondary attraction to be the basis of the land’s supporting ride. I didn’t have to look far. Amy Ratcliffe’s The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge includes concept art developed for a ride themed to Boba Fett, probably for the version of Star Wars land that would’ve existed before Disney decided to go full “Wizarding World” and center it on the sequels.

Obviously, what we know about the ride is pretty limited, so I sort of reverse designed MANDOLORIAN – BOUNTY RUN off of the concept art above. It shows a vehicle with what we can presume to be eight rider positions (four facing left, four facing right), each straddling a blaster. I imagine this “ship” actually being suspended from the ceiling, perhaps on a scissor joint (like Kongfrontation’s trams) but entirely enclosed – with a screen for a windshield and an on-ride Mandolorian Animatronic pilot. (All it would take is a Mandolorian at the controls who could rotate his helmeted head back toward guests when addressing them.)

Only once guests had been seated would the vehicle physically advance into the dark ride. There, after jumping to lightspeed and arriving (via the windshield screen) at a target planet, the walls on either side of the vehicle would retract, with guests’ seats tipping forward and leaning into oblong, domed screens travling with the vehicle, Forbidden Journey style. (This would also work with physical sets instead of screens! However, screens have the benefit of providing randomized “bounties” and planetary visits.)

Because Galaxy’s Edge severely needs something with no height requirement, I added FIRST ORDER HOLOCRON HEIST. I picture this as an all-ages dark ride using the same ride system as Tokyo’s Monsters Inc: Ride & Go Seek. In its pre-show, guests would attend a First Order recruitment meeting led by a Stormtrooper… But that Stormtrooper would turn out to be Finn in disguise. Via Audio-Animatronic, Finn would inform guests that the Resistance had infiltrated the facility to get ahold of an important shipment – a glowing, blue Holocron containing vital information on a First Order spy in the Resistance camp.

Finn would explain the plan: with guests posing as citizens of Batuu won over by the First Order cause, they’d be recruited as Stormtroopers-in-training and granted security clearance to patrol the facilitiy via Scouting Pod. Their goal: to find the shipment and grab the Holocron. Once it’s acquired, the Resistance will cut the power to the facility, giving recruits a chance to escape.

Of course, “something goes horribly wrong.” In this case, just as guests find the glowing crate, a curious porg would knock over the shipment and swallow the Holocron whole. “No!” Finn would shout over the radio. The response from the Resistance: “Now?”

In the madness, the Resistance would cut the power, leaving guests to set off into the Porg-infested facility with flashlights to track down the porg with the glowing belly and hand it off to the Resistance. To me, this felt like a fun, light-hearted “hide & go seek” game that would be low-stakes, funny, and exciting for the whole family. It’s also “interactive,” but not the score-keeping sense, which we don’t see enough of.

Naturally, I added back the KALIKORI CLUB – the infamous sit-down restaurant and dinner theater cut from the installations in Florida and California. I like that the restaurant was designed to be two levels, with a sort of classy dinner establishment on ground level, and a shifty, sleezy nightclub in the basement. I’m not entirely sure that fits the “vibe” I’m going for with my vision of Batuu that’s less “hive of scum and villainy” and more “vibrant ecological village,” but restoring this concept is low-hanging fruit for a “built-out” Galaxy’s Edge.

And finally, I also restored and greatly expanded another cut concept, which I call the OUTER RIM CREATUARY. One idea drawn up for Galaxy’s Edge was a walkthrough exhibit allowing guests to tour a collection of animals from around the galaxy brought to Batuu as part of a sort of petting zoo. It makes sense, since the idea allows iconic Star Wars creatures from across films and planets to make an appearance.

The plans clearly have an element of “fun house” or even “haunted house” with some spooky encounters and mini-habitats for guests to pass through. That’s fine, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with an encounter with a wampa or rancor being scary. But I also wanted this to read as a family attraction, and to match my more benevolent, ecological vision of Batuu.

So I designed the Creatuary not as some “petting zoo” of creatures stolen from their worlds, but as a sanctuary where Batuu’s ecologists rehabilitate, study, and share these creatures with the planet’s many visitors. Speaking of which…

The capstone experience for the Creatuary would be the THERII ENCOUNTER. You can probably quickly gather that this is a sort of “rebirth” of Universal’s lost Triceratops Encounter, which basically invited guests to meet-and-greet with an (Animatronic) triceratops, watching it blink, breath, sneeze, shuffle, react to touch, and even urinate while a Jurassic Park vet talked all about its adaptations and life. Clearly a “B-Ticket” in its own right, this “hidden gem” existed merely to showcase the technology, but it also beautifully built out the “world” of Jurassic Park.

I picture Therii Encounter doing the same. It would give guests the chance to visit one of three of these peaceful, herbivorous, native Batuuan creatures as they’re rehabilitated in forest huts from injuries suffered by Stormtrooper laser blasts. Guests would be able to learn about the therii and their role in Batuu’s history and ecology.

One of these tusked, beaked creatures was initially planned for its own attraction. A sort of walk-around, ride-on therii named Elee would’ve lumbered through the Black Spire market with riders on her back. It makes sense that such a catastrophically low-capacity attraction that would essentially just be “world-building” got cut, but I see this as a way to restore a piece of that experience, and in the meaningful, full-fledged context of the Creatuary.

Hopefully, that would all add to establishing a new, warm impression of this version of Batuu; something a little more alive than the versions in California and Florida.

Wrap-Up

I would totally understand if you felt a little disappointment after seeing Galaxy’s Edge appear in this park. Maybe it’s a cop-out to re-use a land we all know well, and one that’s not exactly beloved by all. But I feel strongly that a Star Wars land belongs in Fantastic Worlds (more than Disneyland or even Hollywood Studios, if we’re being honest) and even if we can quibble over the details, I do think Imagineers did the right thing in creating their own world, and that Batuu is smart in a lot of ways.

My quick-pitch wrap-up would be that I believe I improved the land by brightening it. I wanted to maintain what works, but shift the aesthetic slightly (a forest! a vibrant community! color! water!), rethink its “supporting” ride (with Mandolorian – Bounty Run being an “even swap” for Smugglers Run), and build experiences that fit the land’s immersive scale, but give access to all ages (Holocron Heist and the Creatuary).

Ultimately, maybe you’d be happier with Naboo, or if I’d reset the timeline to the original trilogy, or if I’d just avoided a Star Wars land altogether. But I’m proud of this land and the role it would play in the park’s lineup.