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 giving you the side eye. I definitely admire the ambition to create this open world, but WDI put so many roadblocks in place that made it so off-putting for the very people they wanted to attract.

First, they discourage and in many ways forbid guests from cosplaying. Disney couldn't stop telling people that they could live their own Star Wars story when marketing the new land, but if you show up with your ComicCon getup at the front gate, you are instantly 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 in December 2019). They created a land where they wanted people to live their Star Wars story, but dumped them on a world nobody knew at a time nobody cared about. To top it off, they filled the land with characters that were either intimidating or impossible to find. They promised live entertainment, but nothing remotely approached what they teased when they initially announced the land - in fact some of those were ported to the Galactic Starcruiser.

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 effects 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 (even if you just want to take a picture with a lightsaber, you have to buy one). 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 just to walk into Oga's. Then there's the Galactic Starcruiser, which for many was the biggest slap in the face in the history of Star Wars fandom - all the promises WDI made for Galaxy's Edge when it was announced, but were not actually delivered when it opened, were available to Starcruiser guests, except it cost you a fortune to stay there. 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 designed 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 (much like the minimal interactive elements found at PtWoA at DAK).

The bottom line, most people don't go to theme parks to create their own stories (yes they go to create memories, but those are very different), they want to be told stories or experience stories alongside their favorite characters. Sure, it's great to have some flexibility and unpredictability, but at the heart of the theme park experience is to be flung around (either literally or figuratively) and entertained, and while there are some who like to be entertainers while they are being entertained, a majority of people (including CMs) do not want to do work while on vacation. 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.

To be fair to Disney trying to judge what Star Wars fans really want is a tricky thing....

Personally I really enjoyed Galaxy's Edge how it was. Sure, can use spark on things but it still works, immersing you into Star Wars. I know that if Disney had gone for Endor or Tattoine or such, it'd be complaints of "Disney playing it too safe rather than something new." As this very site has summed up "no one can hate Star Wars as much as Star Wars fans."

So will they rework "Temu" Darth Vadar into the real one and actually make this ride not only 95% empty hallways and screenz?

99% of guests will enjoy the characters and disregard the breached storyline. How many people complain of the misplaced Hat Box Ghost at Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion? That being said, it is attention to detail that separates Disney from other theme parks and at least an attempt at a coherent storyline is welcomed. Otherwise just rename the entire land the Star Wars Experience.

To me, placing the land in a non-specific place was brilliant, and the benefit of the choice is revealed in the current changes and in the future as well. The Star Wars extended universe is a large and ever-shifting thing. It is a feature not a bug that Batuu can hold space for New Republic-era, and the original trilogy, as well as the myriad spin-off projects and timelines. WWOHP lands are stuck in the time and story they are from, and while they are incredible themed locations, may become more dated more quickly. SWGE has the opportunity to remain more evergreen because it is its own IP, a theme-park addition to the canon, but designed to act as a blank slate for whichever direction the Star Wars universe happens to be headed.

I think I agree with Jonah here. I'm not surprised or disappointed with this change, either, Disneyland needed an area themed to the original trilogy and they got one. Maybe we'll even get something themed to the prequels in DHS if this goes successfully.

I sure hope this isn't the end of star tours. On one hand, it's a fantastic and high-capacity ride, but it is kind of in a weird area. I wouldn't be surprised if they took it out but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

Grew up in the golden era of the original trilogy. Enjoyed it when I was younger but never saw anything beyond the original trilogy. The ambiguous nature of the land means that I can just show up with little more than a passing knowledge of the original trilogy and still enjoy the land and the immersion.

“Move over Turtle Talk with Crush! and make way for Jeers, Jokes and Jive with Jabba!, a mature-oriented dinner theater with ribauld insult humor flung at you like by none other than Jabba the Hutt himself! You will enjoy tasty Huttese cuisine and be constantly reminded of the Bantha Poodoo that you really are! Reservations strongly recommended.”

@Russell Meyer:
"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 "

Is this something you have knowledge of, or just a suspicion?

The chance that John Williams' music gets an AI treatment in this context is near zero. The contracts that dictate the use of music within theme parks are pretty intense, and none more so than those relating to the music of the most popular IP-composer in history. I know that JW personally approves any changes to orchestration, arrangement, etc. Why would he sign off on handing over that artistic authority to AI? Even if he were to do so, I'm sure the price would be much higher than it would cost to simply hire him to create a new medley. My guess is that between Star Tours, the Batuu fireworks, and many other special events, Disney already has the musical content they need to bring the original trilogy's music into the land. It doesn't take AI to hit "play" on those tracks. But it's not free to use any track in a theme park setting--they are probably upping their licensing budget significantly to make this change.

@Jonah - It's a suspicion that I have based on direct comments from Bob Iger and other Disney officials along with industry trends. While contracts would not allow musical scores to be altered or dramatically modified by AI, someone still needs to edit pieces of music together into a cohesive score. It's not like they're going to pull up Empire, press play, and let the full soundtrack run from start to finish. Editing is going to be needed to splice individual melodies and themes together to create a new soundtrack for the land that accurately captures the energy and feel of the space. This is where I surmise that Disney will lean on AI. Instead of using expensive sound editors and creative musicians to craft the land's soundtrack based on Williams' themes, I predict that Disney will push this laborious task onto AI, which will not only piece together snippets of John Williams' classic music, but will craft similarly-styled transition sequences and interludes to smooth out the edges and create a cohesive, never ending soundtrack of classic Star Wars melodies and themes. I would agree that it's highly unlikely that Disney is going to make any alterations to Williams' music, but there's nothing contractually stopping Disney from using AI performing editing functions to "best-fit" Williams' work to the land and develop/compose pieces of music to allow individual works to flow into each other in a smooth, non-abrasive manner or to spontaneously react to what may be going on in the land at a given time - i.e. Darth Vader appears and Imperial March "magically" starts playing over the speakers, but not on a continuous loop since it's a relatively short theme that would get tiring after a few minutes - I envision the theme playing through 2-3 times but then broken up with a "Theme and Variations" take on the melody that would return to the originally scored theme after 5 minutes (musicians have been doing this for years FWIW, so what I'm suggesting is that Disney would hand this task to AI instead of having Williams do it himself or have another highly-paid composer to do it for them).

This use of AI has already been used like this by various music services, including radio stations/companies that have even created AI DJs that perform generic banter between songs within an outlet's defined format. Frankly this is not that different from what James Cameron has said regarding AI use in movies noting that AI could significantly increase the turnaround of special effects shots and the coalescing of live-action and animated images, shortening production timelines and decreasing the need for reshoots.

I feel this move is common sense and the fact that it took Disney 6 years to do it shows the insane amount of bureaucracy that exists within the company to get anything done. Like on day one when the complaints started rolling in, Bob Iger or Chapek should have just stepped in and said make it happen right now.

In regards to Galaxy's Edge in general: I am not a Star Wars fan and as a GP in this sense, I've always thought this land fell short of the standard that was set by Harry Potter, Cars, and Avatar Lands. The same goes for Avengers. And think there is a common denominator here: all of a sudden things got worse when Chapek was put in charge of the parks.

There is definitely something to the paywall thing that Russel said, when it comes to things like this it starts at the top. When the mentality shifts from "make it fun," to "milk this as much as possible," the project is not setup for success. There were even non theme park youtube channels making videos about how Star Wars Land was a blatant cash grab with little to do without spending a lot of money.

@Russell:
Your concerns are well-justified, given the direction everything is headed. I am a composer and performer in the entertainment industry, and I am fearful of exactly the kind of changes you refer to. Theme park underscoring (the music playing in the background as you walk around) is ripe for AI specifically, because there are licensing agreements for any kind of “public performance” of a composer’s work, and theme park underscoring is absolutely that kind of use case. So, it is already in the theme park operator’s bottom-line interest to either negotiate a lower licensing rate to play the composer’s work as underscoring, or to simply use music that has been created to be “royalty-free,” where the composer essentially signed away their right to any future income from the music. AI is already invading the space of royalty-free music significantly. If you hear a kind of bland, slop-ified jazz or new-age music at a gym or cafe, there’s a significant chance it is AI-generated.

Mostly this music stinks and is as nondescript as possible, by definition. But it’s a funny thing about the industry: the bean-counters are obsessed with saving a penny when they can, but if it’s a big, and especially proven, property, they will throw seemingly limitless resources at it. There are legal, professional, and personal reasons why we aren’t going to see generative AI used in the process of preparing John William’s music for a theme park situation. I already explained that John Williams would have to sign off on such a change. Knowing that he is one of the last working composers to work in pencil at a piano, I can hardly imagine him OK-ing a change like that. He is also tremendously respected in the industry. Through his music and the success that that music has created for numerous films, he has earned a tremendous amount of clout and power. He wields this power for good--to protect the integrity of the music he worked so hard to create. Disney would be extremely foolish to pick a fight with him, and why would they? The use of his music is a classic win-win for everyone. It drives profit in the theme park business just as it does in the film business. One of the reasons I want to be in SWGE is because of his music (I wrote an article several years back on this site about just how ubiquitous his music is in theme parks).

While some of the cost-saving measures you describe concerning long-term changes to SWGE are frustrating for us fans, especially knowing just how extensive the original vision was, I remain grateful that the land exists, that it is as immersive and beautiful as it is, and that it houses the greatest ride yet created. In the end, this business is a constant tug-of-war between limitless creativity, and the realities of a money-making venture. Why won’t John Williams’ music be given an AI treatment? Because, rare in the industry, he has successfully navigated that tug-of-war in ways that make both the fans (myself included) and the bean-counters happy, and has done so with a consistency and virtuosity that is mind-boggling.

I'm not sure I can put links into these comments, but here is that article, if you're interested:
https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3543/

"GP"? Have we become so tragically hip that we have to use an acronym for the words "general public"?

I completely understand Jonah, and I certainly hope you're right in regards to Williams' sway on how his music is handled within the parks, and will be free from AI meddling and splicing his iconic works as a cost-savings measure. The more I see AI elbowing its way into our world, the more I fear for our sanity, especially for the plebes that fall for and are accepting of AI schlock. The more we accept DeepFake and other AI intrusions into our personal and professional spaces, the more clever, subtle, and difficult to spot it will become.

As an aside, there's a story regarding Maccabi Tel Aviv (top professional soccer team in Israel) and the behavior of their supporters. Last fall, the club began participating in the annual UEFA Europa League competition (second tier continental professional tournament, just below UEFA Champions League), but a number of clubs they were scheduled to compete against had voiced potential match security concerns because of the invasion of Gaza. Some clubs completely banned Maccabi supporters from their stadiums, while others put in place additional security, mostly to protect the Maccabi supporters from antisemitic attacks. Near the end of last year, Maccabi was scheduled to play in Birmingham, England against Aston Villa (a club in the English Premier League), and local officials were growing concerned about the potential for incidents associated with the match. Stories began emerging regarding the Maccabi supporters, particularly their "Ultras" (the most fanatical of supporter groups) and how they were violent, abusive, and "hooligans". Because of the Hillsborough disaster (I won't go too much into that), English soccer has always been extremely sensitive to protecting fans and doing everything possible to prevent a repeat of that 1989 event where 97 people died and another 766 were injured. Because of the concerns and reports surrounding the Maccabi supporters, Aston Villa got permission from UEFA to ban all Maccabi fans from the match. The match was staged with a complete section of Villa Park empty and Maccabi fans who had already either landed or booked travel to England were not permitted to enter. Over this past week, it has been discovered by the BBC that many of the news stories and accounts of violent and abusive behavior from Maccabi fans were the work of AI, and local Birmingham officials and UEFA swayed by those fabrications were completely fooled by the power and acceptance of AI-generated content.

I didn't mean to sidetrack too much there, and I do think AI is an excellent tool for certain tasks and to create efficiency in many areas of our society, but it is incredibly concerning to see so many people, especially leaders of major companies, governments, and think tanks, willingly investing immense resources (and by extension faith) into the power of AI. If John Williams can be the tip of the spear, he would be even more of a hero to me than he already is, but I worry that even someone of his stature will be unable to sway the majority of peons who couldn't spot an AI if it was right in front of their face with a flashing light saying "THIS IS AI".

Russell: "First, they discourage and in many ways forbid guests from cosplaying. Disney couldn't stop telling people that they could live their own Star Wars story when marketing the new land, but if you show up with your ComicCon getup at the front gate, you are instantly walked back to your car."

Me: Yeah I'm gonna throw the b*llsh*t flag on that one. Every August my son and I celebrate the anniversary of WDW DHS GE by hitting the park in full cosplay. He is a drone mechanic -- complete with an custom R2 that he weathered and customized. I trail him in full Jedi tunic, hooded cape and boots -- light saber hilt on my belt. We hunt down Rey and Vi Moradi, pass them a note about that year's mission and then cross paths with them throughout the day. This claim that we would get walked back to the parking lot is garbage.

What I think Russell was referring to was Disney's rule against cosplaying as specific characters. Outside of the Halloween events, adults aren't allowed to show up in a full character costume. Generic Jedi robes are fine, but sporting Rey-style clothing and hair isn't. We all remember the story about the teenager who was denied entry for looking too much like the in-park version of Tinker Bell.