The latest blue-sky concept for Disneyland's version of the new land have hit the Internet, but Disney's nowhere near hiring contractors and putting shovels in the ground. The idea, as last we've heard, is for Disney to announce Star Wars Land at the D23 Expo in August 2015, though the actual plans for the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of the land might not be completed until after that, based on how quickly Imagineers can incorporate elements from the upcoming Star Wars trilogy. (Episode VII hits theaters in December 2015.)
Let's recap where we are before looking ahead. Disney green-lit Star Wars Land after acquiring Lucasfilm, and the company even teased the land at the last D23 Expo, in 2013. But concept development stalled as Disney management (wisely) decided to include elements from the upcoming films, rather than creating a Star Wars Land based solely upon the original six movies. When director JJ Abrams took over the script for Episode VII and tightened the veil of secrecy around the production (in an effort to avoid what happened on Star Trek: Into Darkness, when the Khan twist leaked during filming), Imagineering was left waiting even longer. Not that Imagineering doesn't have plenty else to do, with Shanghai Disneyland, Avatar, and Disney Springs taking time and money from the budget.
In the meantime, Universal has been raising visitors' expectations for what a theme park land should be, with the wildly popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter, both the Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley versions. Both lands go beyond appropriately-decorated plazas that house a variety of attractions from the same IP. They faithfully recreate specific immersive locations from the Harry Potter universe, allowing visitors to imagine that they've actually entered that universe.
Of course, Disney can play this game, too, and did — with Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. Instead of simply creating a desert-looking plaza for its Cars-themed attractions, Disney created a physical version of the animated town of Radiator Springs to provide a home for that land. As with most things in the themed attraction business, the Wizarding Worlds and Cars Land built upon projects from the past. Disney brought together multiple attractions from the same IP in a specific themed environment at Tokyo DisneySea with the Jules Verne-themed Mysterious Island and The Little Mermaid-themed Triton's Kingdom. Going further back, the first example of stringing multiple attractions from the same IP in a specific immersive environment might be the original Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America at Anaheim's Disneyland.
So if we want to grok the future of Star Wars Land, let's start there — with the idea that SWL must recreate specific immersive locations from the Star Wars universe, rather than simply providing a decorated environment for a variety of individual Star Wars-themed rides, shows, restaurants, and shops. You're not just visiting the world of Star Wars in Star Wars Land, you're visiting a specific place within the Star Wars canon.
But where? This is where we hit the first major development challenge facing Imagineers. Star Wars takes place upon multiple planets, strewn throughout a "galaxy far, far away." The ideal of creating a specific immersive environment falls apart if Imagineers place a Tatooine-set pod-racing ride next to a Coruscant-set Jedi Training Academy show. (Or, heaven forbid, an X-wing spinner ride rotating around a miniature Death Star. Please, no "Chester and Hester"-grade stuff here, okay?) If Star Wars Land is to meet (or exceed) the standard set by the Wizarding World, Cars Land, and Tokyo DisneySea, it must separate attractions and locations from each planet into separate lands, or mini-lands.
So perhaps we should stop thinking about Star Wars Land as a single, homogenous thing, and instead envision it as a collection of planet-themed environments: Tatooine Land, Coruscant Land, Naboo Land, etc. And let's not forget that quite a bit of Star Wars takes place off-planet, too — whether it be on one of the two Death Stars, various Imperial Star Destroyers, the Millennium Falcon, and so forth.
Now let's consider another challenge: What about Star Tours? Disney's already got a Star Wars-themed ride in its parks, and it would seem logical that it should be included in any new Star Wars Land. But how would that happen, thematically?
Star Tours takes us to many of the planets in the Star Wars universe. But where is the Star Tours starport set? If anything, in the original version of the ride, the suggestion was that the starport was set here on Earth, either in Tomorrowland at Disneyland or a Star Wars-themed movie set in Walt Disney World. The new version, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, fudges things a bit by delivering us to a different destination from where we first blasted away from Darth Vader or the Stormtroopers.
If the goal is to build a specific immersive environment from an individual location in the Star Wars universe, Star Tours presents a huge problem. It simply doesn't fit in that kind of setting. What happens if you set Star Tours within Coruscant Land, but your adventure within the ride delivers you to Naboo? When you exit the ride, you're still going to be in Coruscant Land. That breaks the environment. Universal's Harry Potter lands don't do this sort of thing. Nor does Cars Land. Star Wars Land can't either, if it is to live up to those standards.
Here are the options, then, for Star Tours:
Keeping Star Tours out of Star Wars Land actually opens fresh development options for Disney, as the company's no longer limited to building Star Wars Land in the area immediately adjacent to those rides. (This gives some credibility to the Toontown option for Disneyland.) If Disney takes the Harry Potter-like approach of developing multiple Star Wars lands, each themed to different locations within the Star Wars universe, having a Star Tours ride off by itself won't stick out so much over time, as more Star Wars "planet lands" are opened at each resort.
With which planet should Disney start, though? The answer seems obvious — go with the planet that appears the most often the Star Wars films: Tatooine. Anakin's home planet features in five of the six existing Star Wars films, and, given that Episode VII is filming in the desert outside Abu Dhabi, one might presume that Tatooine will appear in the newest film, too. Fans would be thrilled to see "Star Wars Land — Phase One" be Mos Eisley, with a cantina restaurant and a souvenir marketplace. A walk-through Millennium Falcon could be parked in Docking Bay 94. And another Tatooine-set attraction could be built on the edge of Mos Eisley. A pod racing-themed ride seems obvious, but it that's not distinct enough from the experience now available on Star Tours, perhaps Disney's Imagineers could find some inspiration in Jabba's palace? That's a fantastic environment that could house an amazing dark ride experience.
And you'd better believe that visitors' MagicBands will allow them to "use the Force" and trigger special effects inside Star Wars Land, to one-up Universal's interactive wands in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Could elements from Episode VII be included? Sure, and eventually, the presence of the new trilogy must be accommodated within the various Star Wars lands. However, that raises the question of when Star Wars Land will be set, in addition to where?
Even the best immersive theme park environments fudge the issue of timing. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade clearly is set during the events of the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, with the Tri-Wizard tournament going on in the land. Yet Diagon Alley is set on the day that Harry, Ron and Hermoine break into Gringotts Bank in the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There's a Hogwarts Express ride that connects the two lands, but we never do see the timeturner that must be at work when we travel across that time, as well as space. ;^)
Cars Land has its own timing issues, with the drive-around Lightning McQueen character sporting a Cars 2 livery, while Doc Hudson, who's deceased by the time of the events of Cars 2, plays a major role in the Radiator Springs Racers ride.
Here's the huge timing challenge for Star Wars Land: Darth Vader. Star Wars' most iconic character exists in his famous, helmeted form only from the end of the third movie to the end of the sixth. Place Star Wars Land outside that time frame, and you can't include Vader without breaking canon — unless JJ Abrams has something wild in store for us in Episode VII. (This provides yet one more reason for keeping Star Tours outside of any planet-themed Star Wars Land.) Perhaps Disney could use Universal's approach with Harry Potter, and have its different planet lands set at different times, allowing Vader to exist in another version of Star Wars Land than the Tatooine one. (Remember that Vader never visits Tatooine again after Anakin wipes out the Sand People following his mother's death, anyway.) Put the Vader meet-and-greet next to "Star Wars Land — Star Tours," and leave him out of "Star Wars Land — Tatooine."
With this approach, Disney could announce a Tatooine-themed Star Wars Land for its parks at D23 next summer, then simultaneously consolidate additional, non-Tatooine-set Star Wars-themed stuff around the Star Tours rides to satisfy fans who want to see stuff that doesn't thematically fit on Tatooine. "Star Wars Land — Star Tours" would complement "Star Wars Land — Tatooine" as Disney develops additional, elaborately-themed Star Wars planet-lands over the years to come, eventually giving all the major Star Wars elements their appropriate theme parks homes, including elements from the new trilogy.
In this way, Star Wars Land isn't a single location — it's a franchise within a franchise that Disney can continue to develop in multiple locations within and across its various resorts indefinitely.
Will Disney take this approach, or will it go cheap and just throw a bunch of Star Wars-themed stuff together and use its PR machine to try to convince the world that fans have fallen in love with it? We should be getting our first clues, if not the answer, to that question in the next 12 months.
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If done well Star Wars land would give me a reason to go back to WDW after many years but nothing they are doing give me the feeling they will succeed and get back to the level of when Walt was around or the standard Universal has created.
And based on recent history, whatever WDI ends up deciding on for Hollywood Studios, I’m assuming it will be underwhelming, like almost everything new to come to Walt Disney World in the last eight years, or so (admittedly, that’s a very short list). I just have no faith that the current upper management at the company has any desire to do amazing things in Florida again. Eisner, for all his flaws, at least seemed to really love the parks on a personal level, and continually tried to add and freshen the offerings (sometimes to great effect, sometimes in a very misguided way); Iger doesn’t seem to care about WDW at all beyond the revenue it generates for the company. So when STAR WARS Land does eventually open (probably just in time for WDW’s 50th anniversary), I’m expecting a restaurant, new shops, a couple of flat rides, and maybe a new show, all wrapped in extravagantly-detailed theming - all flash, no substance, and certainly no new E tickets. I want to be proven wrong. I desperately want to see WDW fully engage Universal in an attractions arms race and build some first-class, one-of-a-kind rides, but I see no evidence that Iger or the TDO people have any interest in doing cutting-edge stuff again.
That said, your idea for a Jabba’s Palace dark ride would be a ton of fun, and an opportunity for Disney to create a new AA showcase the likes of which they haven’t attempted since the heyday of Epcot. Just imagine the dozens of cool alien creatures that could populate that ride!
I'm all for taking the time to do things right, but the fact that Disney won't even be ready to make an announcement for another year is just further proof that they just don't seem to get it.
I will say that Robert seems to completely ignore the one potential reason why Disney is taking so long to make an announcement about Star Wars in the theme parks, and what would solve all of the "land" problems he points out....Star Wars will occupy its own theme park in both Florida and California. Everyone seems to think the WWoHP is its own theme park, and perhaps Universal will eventually make that happen some day, but Disney could eliminate all of the confusion by creating a full theme park experience around the worlds of Star Wars. With 6 movies to pull from and another 4+ in development, there's plenty of material to make that happen, and could potentially explain the delay in Disney applying the IP more widely in the existing parks.
Toy Story Mania opened in summer 2008, just 6 years ago. I get the point though, and the park is clearly suffering from stagnation. The fact the USF is not really a working studio park allows Disney to reinvent DHS much in the way the DCA has been reinvented. It's just a matter of how much money they're willing to pump into it.
Disney seems to run on geologic time these days.
However, I think Russell has the best idea as a new Star Wars theme park would really set the world on fire. Disney has the room, and the Star Wars Universe has the stories, so why not go all out? A Star Wars park could potentially become the most popular vacation destination on the planet.
1) I like the idea of using Tatooine as a theme. Definitely retheme the current Star Traders to Florida's better-themed "Tatooine Traders" at the Studios to really have a sense of Tatooine as a theme. Theme the Star Tours facade to far more of a Star Wars/ futuristic theme and although there are supposed to be different destinations/ experiences on the ride, theme the exit to Tatooine as it's the most iconic/ most used and still is one of the destinations. Maybe make it so you hop on the ride at the station and exit the ride in Tatooine.
2) The Captain EO Theater is definitely awaited to be razed at this point. Starcade, which is not my favorite thing could also be razed as well. Those are both next to/ behind the Star Traders store. Why not reskin those into the iconic Tatooine Pod Racers'? The Redd Rocket's Pizza port next door to Space Mountain is also not well-themed and has horrible food and I would be more than glad to see that re-themed to the Moss Eisley Cantina. Maybe even include an animatronic of Jabba the Hutt, similar to Sonny Eclipse at WDW's Tomorrowland (Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe).
3) Obviously keep Space Mountain and re-theme the queue/ entrance to make it look like you are transferring from Tatooine to Space Port 77.
4) If the areas around Innoventions (except Space Mountain) shall go, there's no reason Innoventions shouldn't either. Replace Innoventions with an attraction themed to Queen/ Padme Amidala's palace or some sort of meet-and-greet.
5) Keep the jedi training academy, but maybe put a roof over it and have a Yoda animatronic on the ride's queue giving you instructions. Retheme the Tomorrowland terrace around that.
[quote]This is the way I'd do it. Star Wars is too big for just one land of a park. A whole Star Wars park could work, but this doesn't seem like the avenue they've chosen. Therefore multiple themed areas must be the go. They could all be in the one park, but it makes much better commercial sense to spread them across the parks, like Harry Potter has.
A post on another thread detailed this and I think that poster had some good ideas. For DHS I would go with Tatooine. I would personally extend out over or under the road with the bridge being decorated as the transition into Mos Eisley, and converting the swampland into tattoine (knocking down things would probably make more financial sense I admit). Star Tours could have a rethemed exit so the ride is the thematic access route to tatooine from earth.
As for content, the cantina is a given for the primary meals area. Jabba's palace, I believe would be the best secondary food outlet,and would double up as the opening to a ride which features the escape from the palace and the sarlac. You could throw in the obligatory broken yeti - I mean rancor. This would be best done as a semi dark ride with the first half being inside and the rest outside. I'm thinking something vaguely similar to the mummy rides, or perhaps Indiana Jones (only on a smaller scale)
The next ride would be on Luke's t-16, definitely a kiddie coaster (I don't believe DHS has one at all) with a simple threading of the stone needle and taking potshots at womp rats.
The final ride, and the e-ticket,would be a pod-race. This could be done in many different ways, and I'm sure disney's imagineers could come up with better ideas than I could on how it works. This is one of the best action set-pieces from Tatooine, and could make for an incredible ride if done correctly. [/quote]
Also, I disagree about placing it in Tomorrowland. DHS has a tremendous amount of space, once they raze the Indy show and the Backstage Tour. And SW fits the "movie" theme much better than the "tomorrow" theme.
As previously stated, a new park altogether would be the perfect option, and it would be done in the Magic Kingdom hub & spoke-style.
The "castle" could even be the Death Star, which would be the park's icon, much like Spaceship Earth's giant golf ball is its icon. Obviously the Death Star would double as a dark ride. Or even copy Spaceship Earth and have a slow-moving ride through the history of Star Wars to initiate all the peoplel who have really no idea what it's about. Explain the species, the force, the characters' relationships, etc.
The spokes would all open up to individual lands or "planets".
That would be the best way to do it. Obviously I don't see that happening because of cost concerns, but depending on land, they could easily build another two or three hotels, specifically themed to Star Wars.
Then get rid of Star Tours altogether. Simply disassemble it and move it to Hong Kong Disneyland, or put it into DisneyQuest.
Option two would be to put different planets in different parks. Coruscant in Hollywood Studios. Hoth in Paris. Tatooine in Shanghai, etc.
And like they did with the Downtown Disney Starbucks where Anaheim can see Orlando and vice versa through a "portal", there could be a similar feature that allows people to see what's going on in the other parks/planets.
Either way, I'm guessing I'll be underwhelmed in 3-5 years when the plans are officially announced, but I'll hold my breath nonetheless.
I think that they will make a 5th theme park completely dedicated to Star Wars. Star Wars has very diverse environments, so much so that you would need a rather large area dedicated to Star Wars to remotely do justice to the franchise. WDW has more than enough room to accommodate a new park. WDW is due for a new park anyways, and would certainly give The Wizarding World of Harry Potter a run for their money.
I also think this would be a good opportunity for WDW to make Star Wars themed Hotels. Imagine a Corascent or a Mos Eisly Themed Hotel. I think Disney has an opportunity to do something big here.
Universal has built the next level of immersive experiences in Diagon Alley, you are actually there in the movie, and everything from the food and merchandise supports it.
Disney has 'themed' areas. For example, Disneyland's Fantasyland, while great, is a still an assortment of experiences, you are not totally immersed in any movie.
A worse offender is the Little Mermaid ride in DCA. You know you are on a ride, not an immersive experience, because the building is just decorated to the theme of the Little Mermaid.
I'm not sure that Disney can totally go the immersive route with Star Wars, I'm sure they will still sell Coke in the land. But one thing is sure, it cannot be totally immersive in the space of Toontown and Big Thunder Ranch or even Tomorrowland. Star Wars needs its own park in order to be totally immersive.
I was looking at Google Maps, actually Toontown is a very small area, you would have to tear down backstage buildings to put Star Wars there. And also Toontown is actually far from Big Thunder Ranch, actually the Fantasyland Theater is in between them. Also even now with the fireworks, they close It's A Small World to make sure that embers don't fall onto the building, how are they going to keep Star Wars land (in Toontown) open?
Adding Star Wars to Disneyland is not going to increase revenue as much as a third park, you need a separate park to increase ticket sales, and spread out the crowds.
As far as Toontown is concerned, I think it should remain, Mickey and friends need their own land, maybe spruce it up with a new attraction.
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