Darth Vader is coming to Disney's Star Wars Galaxy's Edge

Total and complete capitulation without an apology or admission of guilt. Not only that, but I wouldn't be surprised that Disney will be using AI to mesh John Williams' classic scores to create the new background music for the land in accordance with Iger's (and Wall Street's) demand for increased use of the technology.

There's no doubt that WDI made a huge gaffe when they time-locked Galaxy's edge between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, but the constant stubbornness over the past 5 years, which included the flop of the Galactic Starcruiser project, to promote Disney's vision of Star Wars was tone deaf. It's fine to admit mistakes, and this is so obviously lip service for the so-called "fans" (really the GP who know little about Star Wars). If WDI were serious about admitting defeat here, they would have gone all-in on converting Galaxy's Edge to the OT timeline. This feels like a half-hearted attempt simply to pacify the loudest criticism of the land.

Hopefully, one day Disney will debut something similar to the stunt show vignettes that were originally planned for Galaxy’s Edge. The area feels so lifeless without them.

Hopefully they go all in and just retheme Rise of the Resistance to OT also. Rise of the Rebellion, if you will. :-)

Just make each attraction set in its own era. I mean, if episode 9 (the rise of Skywalker) had featured as an introductory scene rebels escaping the clutches of the First Order on Baatu, and then people were able to go ride that actual adventure it might put more of a permanent stamp in the public eye of what the focal point of this land was concerning its timeline. Ultimately, I don’t think people really care all that much about the severe minutia of timeline continuity when it comes to rides. And as evidence I would point to the various Harry Potter rides at Universal. Conceptually, I applaud the big swing for the fences once again with this land. But ultimately, the execution of the
concept was neutered by the pandemic and budget constraints. That, coupled with the failure of the Galactic Starcruiser (again, a toast to the grand idea) and cooling popularity of the sequel trilogy juxtaposed with the rise in popularity for the original republic era stemming in no small part from the popularity of the Mandalorian TV series (yes, I know. It’s POST-republic, but still- it features prime Luke Skywalker and legacy icons like Boba Fett). Long winded point made short, it’s a big enough sandbox to just let everyone play in it. Each differing attraction or experience can have its own unique set up to help guests become immersed in which area they are. Ultimately a hero is recognizable as such, and a villain is recognizable as such, and as long as you play with those themes effectively, then the dramatic storytelling shouldn’t suffer. My opinion.

Does adding OG Star Wars to Galaxy's Edge finally set the clock ticking on Star Tours?

You're absolutely right fattyackin. Disney tried to design an "open canvas" for guests to "create their own Star Wars story", which is probably what the hard core, LARPers wanted. The problem is that even with an IP as popular and well known as Star Wars, there just aren't enough people willing to do all the work it takes to create a story and go through all the motions to role play in an open world, particularly around thousands of other judgy people. I definitely admire the ambition to create this open world, but WDI put so many roadblocks in place that made it so offputting for the very people they wanted to attract.

First, they discourage and in many ways forbid guests from cosplaying. They couldn't stop telling people that they could live their own Star Wars story, but if you show up with your ComicCon getup at the front gate, you were walked back to your car. Now, Disney has gotten a bit more accommodating by allowing certain "Disney-Bounding" and completely took the shackles off if you wanted to spend $1,000+ night to stay at the Galactic Starcruiser, but we all know how that ended.

Second, they time-locked the land in between 2 movies of the sequel trilogy (and actually opened the lands BEFORE the last movie debuted December 2019). They created a land where they wanted people to live their Star Wars story, but dumped them on a world at a time nobody cared about. To top it off, they filled the land with characters that were either off-putting or impossible to find.

Finally, they put core experiences behind paywalls. At Universal, you don't have to buy a wand to see the magic of Olivanders and can derive just as much joy and pleasure from watching others use their wands to trigger effect within the land without spending a dime. In order to feel the awe of building a lightsaber, you have to buy one, or at least have a friend who wants to buy one and invites you to be a guest into the building experience. The same goes for the droid building experience, and at first you couldn't even play with your newly constructed droid in the land (they eventually corrected this, but you're still constrained to a small pad). If you want to go to the Star Wars bar, you better be willing to open your wallet, because you have to make a reservation and a minimum purchase to just walk into Oga's. The only truly "open" aspect of Galaxy's Edge in terms of crafting your own Star Wars story is the DataPad app, which was haphazardly design and clearly only done as a throw-away to be able to tout the choose-your-own-adventure claims made by WDI when they originally announced Galaxy's Edge back in 2015.

The bottom line, people don't go to theme parks to create their own stories, they want to be told stories or experience stories alongside their favorite characters. WDI completely missed the boat with Galaxy's Edge, and simply making the timeline more fluid won't correct the fundamental problems with the land.