Lights, Camera, Action!: A Blue Sky, Armchair Imagineered Redesign of Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Background

In 2010, Universal Orlando debuted the game-changing Wizarding World of Harry Potter – arguably the first in a long succession of “Living Lands” since. In the Wizarding World, Universal reset not just the high water mark of theme park design, but guests’ expectations. Plucked from the screen and built to agonizingly accurate scale, the village of Hogsmeade (with the iconic Hogwarts Castle looming over) was far more than just a ride themed to the generation-defining Harry Potter franchise; it was a world. In Hogsmeade, guests could step where their favorite characters had stepped; eat where they ate; shop where they shopped.

Obviously, the one-two-skip-a-few of the “Living Lands” era leads us to its opposite bookend – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 (for $4 billion), there was little question that a Star Wars land could be the company’s Potter equivalent, powering an immersive land that served as a Mecca for the ultra-fandom of the highly merchandisable franchise.

That said, the development of a Star Wars land took a major turn when Disney and Lucasfilm leadership agreed that rather than rooting the land in a setting, timeline, or planet known from George Lucas’ original trilogy, Disney ought to think ahead to its own universe of stories that lay ahead: a sequel trilogy meant to reenergize the franchise with new characters, heroes, settings, and merchandise. Can you blame them? In 2012, the future of Star Wars was a sandbox of incredible possibility – one Disney could expand and explore to its heart’s content.

More to the point, creating a from-scratch world as opposed to one seen on screen was a uniquely necessary solution for the parks. That’s partly due to Disney’s outward explanation (you can live your own Star Wars adventure instead of just visiting a place where things happened in a movie) and partly for the unspoken one (the realities of design – like needing multiple restaurants, retail spaces, restrooms, huge showbuildings ideally disguised by mountains, etc. – that don’t map onto “real” places in the Star Wars universe like Tatooine or Coruscant that just aren’t “theme-park-able”).

The result is that Disney’s twin Star Wars lands – one for Disneyland, and one here at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, each reportedly costing $1 billion – are set on a new planet not seen in the film canon at all – a remote trading outpost village long since passed by lightspeed travel, on a rocky, Outer Rim planet called Batuu. In addition, the lands are firmly locked not just in the timeline of the sequel trilogy, but on one specific day upon which the events of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker depend.

Especially after the critical acclaim earned by Episode VII: The Force Awakens – the series’ major return to pop culture prominence and Disney’s first entry – you can imagine designers feeling that they’d made the right choice; that a new generation of Star Wars fans would come to Disney Parks looking for heroes like Rey, Finn, and Poe, and wanting to unite against the fascist rule of the First Order. No doubt Disney expected its Star Wars era to be just a jumping off point for thousands of new stories set in its timeline.

On the other hand, though, a Star Wars land without Darth Vader? A Millennium Falcon ride without Han Solo? Sure, the trilogy-of-trilogies that make up Star Wars main entries span three generations, and it made sense for Disney to nest its lands in the one it had creative control over… but given the disastrous reviews and financial disappointment of the sequel-trilogy concluding Rise of Skywalker (not to mention the great success of new Star Wars stories that are set in the original trilogy’s timeline), it’s easy to imagine that maybe Disney was too hasty in banking on its now-concluded set of films rather than on the original, timeless Star Wars era that serves as an evergreen umbrella and anchor.

In Disneyland, entertainment was given the green light to make the timeline of Galaxy’s Edge a little more… flexible. “Story bubbles” now allow characters like The Mandalorian and Kylo Ren to co-exist in the land despite being drawn from different decades – with the fine print requirement that neither their paths nor their storylines in the land cross. So what can we do for Galaxy’s Edge at our reimagined Hollywood Studios?

Build-Out

This was actually the first light redress of Galaxy’s Edge I’ve undertaken (with a more robust reimagining as part of my from-scratch, imaginary concept park, Disney’s Fantastic Worlds), but working realistically with what the land already gives us, there are still spaces for expansion or reimagining.

Personally, I did not change the land’s timeline. Partially, that’s because I’m not a big enough Star Wars fan to feel confident shifting it, and I would hate to assume it’s as simple as replacing a Hondo animatronic with Han Solo, a Kylo Ren animatronic with Darth Vader, and other obvious, equivalent changes. I can say that I think pretty much everyone universally enjoyed Episode VII: The Force Awakens, so there’s no question that these characters have some resonance and significance… even if they ended up being underutilized in the canon.

As a result STAR WARS: RISE OF THE RESISTANCE gets to continue on as a jaw-dropping ride that serves as a portfolio of Imagineering’s best tricks, no edits!

However, I think it would be wise to have MILLENNIUM FALCON: SMUGGLERS RUN maintain its timeline, but swap Hondo-as-host for Chewbacca (which would be entertaining in its own right, perhaps with C-3PO “translating” the pre-show and ride dialogue for us). Most importantly, I think the ride really, really needs to launch a new “mission”.

As it is, Smugglers Run suffers from a really kind of awful aesthetic. Ads for the land and ride showed the Falcon sweeping through the blue skies of Batuu, diving through spires and rocketing through canyons before pulling up and launching into the clouds. It’s a nice idea. Unfortunately, the ride itself mostly takes place on some awful urban planet in perpetual sunset, smashing through literal traffic jams of interstellar brake lights while gunners’ blue and red laser blasts fill the screen. It’s all just so chaotic and difficult to follow, when truly being able to freely fly around Batuu until Chewie brings you back to Black Spire Outpost via remote hyperdrive would actually be a more pleasant ride.

Obviously the “right” answer is somewhere in between. Folks want to jump to lightspeed, so you have to go somewhere (and you might as well to expand the scope of the land beyond Batuu). There has to be a “mission.” Gunners and Engineers need to be engaged in action, and Pilots have to have something to do while the simulation itself is still “on rails.” But the current mission ain’t it for me. Luckily, there are alternatives!

Otherwise, my additions to Batuu are pretty simple. The first is the KALIKORI CLUB – a full-service restaurant and lounge planned for the land, but cut before construction. (Nevertheless, the space for it is still set aside behind Oga’s Cantina, which was meant to be a sort of peek into the more robust dinner club beyond.) This table service eatery is one of several projects showcased by Disney at the land’s announcement, then quietly removed without any indication – likely the same cuts to in-land entertainment and staffing allegedly decreed by then-Chairman of Parks, soon-to-be-CEO, now-dismissed, Bob Chapek.

Thanks to Amy Ratcliffe’s The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we have additional artwork and understanding around the restaurant, including that the ground level would’ve been a table service eatery with a little more slinky, sleazy, interstellar nightclub below ground (see above). Anyway, given that this concept exists – as do blueprints, I’m sure – it’s an easy low-hanging fruit to slot in, especially in a park that needs more table service restaurants and a land with high demand for in-universe food and experiences.

The last change is a simple one, but a needed one. Early, accurate criticisms of Galaxy’s Edge noted that the land had very little for young children – and if you exclude retail experiences, practically nothing. Not every land has a “no height requirement” ride, and that’s okay. But it’s a nice thing to have when you can!

My plan for one was BATUU CREATURE SCOUTERS – an all-ages dark ride that would task guests with boarding Hoverpods (the wonderfully high-capacity Omnimover, as in the Haunted Mansion) and heading out into the plains, spires, and valleys of Batuu to round up a host of intergalactic creatures that escaped from a crashed ship en route to the planet’s animal sanctuary. You might even equip riders with flashlights a la Tokyo Disneyland’s “Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek.” In any case, along the way, you’d find friendly and ferocious creatures with in-pod narration explaining each creature.

The ride would then deposit guests in a sort of “Petting Zoo” – a scaled-back version of a larger attraction I developed for my Fantastic Worlds version of Galaxy’s Edge, allowing guests to get up-close and personal with at least a few of the friendlier creatures they found along the way.

Muppet Studios

Background

For then-CEO of Disney Michael Eisner, The Muppets were something of a white whale. Eisner spent years courting Jim Henson in hopes of acquiring the visionary puppeteers’ troupe of felt-and-fur characters. It all culminated in the late ’80s when a the deal was all but done, with plans for an entire Muppet-themed land drawn up for the brand-new Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park.

Unfortunately, Jim Henson passed away in May 1990. His family – understandably protective of their father’s life’s work – retracted, pulling the Muppets back just inches from Disney’s grasp and halting all efforts to pass the characters onto the Mouse. Only through intervention of Henson’s friends did his last work – Muppet*Vision 3D – finally get the green light to be shown (opening in 1991) but any further Muppet theme park plans were cancelled.

We traced Disney’s long love affair with the Muppets in our Possibilityland: Muppet Studios in-depth feature, but suffice it to say that in 2004 – 14 years after it had almost happened – Disney finally acquired The Muppets outright. Unfortunately, that was right as the characters’ biggest supporter – Michael Eisner – stepped away from the company… and right before his successor, Bob Iger, began a string of big-budget acquisitions beginning with Pixar in 2007 that sort of buried Disney’s enthusiasm for The Muppets.

Today, the reality of Disney’s Hollywood Studios means that Muppet*Vision – a perennial classic that should never close! – is precariously perched on the edge of the park’s Star Wars land (cutting off access to Star Tours, even, which might otherwise be absorbed into Galaxy’s Edge) as the only attraction in a made-up land, with Disney doing everything it can to signal the show’s impermanence over the last few years except for putting a “For Rent” sign on the marquee.

But as long as I’m the one armchair Imagineering, it’s here to stay…

Build-Out

Today, the physical realities of Hollywood Studios somewhat limit what can be done in the space around Muppet*Vision. But that didn’t stop me from doing what I could to give the Muppets a proper presence in this park!

For one, I’ve added THE GREAT MUPPET MOVIE RIDE – the attraction that would’ve been the anchor of Muppet Studios in the ’90s. It’s shocking that for all their fit to the genre, the Muppets have never been used in a dark ride, where animatronics of the characters make such phenomenal sense. To deal with the limit space, this might even need to be a two-story attraction, with an elevator carrying guest cars to a second floor.

The Great Muppet Movie Ride – as its name implies – would tour guests past the most fabled moments in silver screen history… as interpreted by the Muppets. A great fit for the evergreen social media trend of imagining which classic story the Muppets should invade next, this attraction would be filled with wonderful gags as the Muppets’ attempts to recreate scenes from, say, Gone with the Wind, A Christmas Story, Alien, Mary Poppins, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and more while everything goes spectacularly wrong.

I’d have this ride exit into MUPPET LABS – an interactive post-show exhibit space filled with creative games, activities, and experiences developed by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. (For some reason, I love the absurd idea of a “Turtle Talk” style experience with the two characters present as puppets who learn from the audience.)

Finally, I’d absorb the remainder of the retro-engineered “Grand Ave.” area into Muppet Studios, which basically means giving two restaurants Muppet overlays. The Baseline Tap House bar becomes PUB BEAKER with chemical cocktails and beer on tap, while the iconic Sci-Fi Dine In becomes GONZO’S SCI-FI DINE-IN RESTAURANT, with interstitials of Muppet B-movie spoofs interspersed between the restaurant’s existing sci-fi movie trailers.

Muppet Studios feels like such a needed thing for this park – a colorful, creative studio campus that nods at film history while also being a silly, world in its own right. More to the point, I think it helps balance the park with an additional family-friendly dark ride that would maybe be a solid D-Ticket, maintains a C-Ticket 3D show, and adds a B-Ticket interactive space like ImageWorks or the former Animation building that people can linger in and explore – a good thing for capacity.

Now, as we round the corner, we enter the last two lands of our reimagined Hollywood Studios…