Detailed History of Galaxy's Edge | Why Disney Cancelled A Tatooine Land
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- From the early days of Star Wars, fans wanted to step foot in the movies and live their own Star Wars experience. And all that became possible when Disney and LucasFilm teamed up for one of the most advanced rides of the time - Star Tours.
Decades later, Disney acquired LucasFilm and began making plans to build a huge new Star Wars land themed around Tatooine. But a call from Bob Iger changed everything for the Imagineers who were working on this top secret project.
Why did Disney pivot to Batuu? And what promises did they break with this land? In today's deep dive, we're discussing the detailed history of Galaxy's Edge. Be sure to tune in each Monday for 'Mouselets Monday' as we talk all things Disney facts and history!
00:32 - Chapter 1: The Original Star Wars Representation in the Disney Parks
05:31 - Chapter 2: Harry Potter Land Opens Up at Universal Studios
07:26 - Chapter 3: Disney Acquires LucasFilm
08:32 - Chapter 4: Top-Secret Star Wars Project Is Coming to the Disney Parks
14:52 - Chapter 5: A Star Wars Land is Finally Announced to the Public
18:27 - Chapter 6: Construction Begins
19:07 - Chapter 7: The Announcement - Galaxy’s Edge and the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel
22:14 - Chapter 8: The Lands Open
25:15 - Chapter 9: Broken Promises
I think that diverting from the original trilogy was a fatal misstep for Galaxy's Edge. Batuu is an interesting idea, but in no way enough to bring in the audience especially considering the budget cuts with everything you mentioned like live entertainment. Disney just didn't put enough investment into developing the idea and giving it the chance that it deserved. If they built familiar locations from the originals, fans would have been much more lenient and would have felt the pull to visit as a fandom bucket list item.
100% Imagine a Harry Potter land....without Harry Potter?
I remember first hearing Galaxy's Edge explained at a Star Wars convention. They even addressed the assumption that a Star Wars Land would feature what everyone knew from the movies, but no, the "creatives" wanted to do something new and original.
Making Star Wars land, but it being not based on the original trilogy is like making a Harry Potter land, but only based on the fantastic beast series. It is such a dumb business decision.
that’s literally what epic universe did with cachée, the new harry potter land based on the french district of the fantastic beast series
@ because there’s already a Harry Potter land.
@@SagaciousSilence Exactly. 2! AND... the ride at Epic Universe will be based on the original Harry Potter series. Not Fantastic Beasts.
@@bonnielovely
I thought it was supposed to be based off the ministry of magic in the original films?
If it’s based on the fantastic beasts then it’s definitely a sad decision
They could literally let in classic characters "outside the timeline" and I PROMISE YOU, Disney, the families at WDW will not care --I worked Studios while Star Wars Weekend was a thing. They were so fun, originals and prequels all together, who cares!
Exactly. The Jedi academy show had villains from all three timelines and nobody cared at all. In fact, what they should have done is had one section that was moss eisley another section that was the death Star and another section that was hoth, another section that was cloud City
I feel eventually they will get there... there are too many people within Disney who care too much about the place they invented, but a place that has no grounding in any other piece of Star Wars. But yes, when I visited the Harry Potter themed lands, I realized guests cared enough to see the things they saw in the movies and didn't care if timelines weren't perfect or lined up. They just want to see things that are familiar to them.
Yeah, it's like, how important is a "canonically accurate timeline" to a family of 4 from Pennsylvania...
I want a big STAR WARS theme park that covers the entire franchise that’ll make you feel like you’re in the middle of the universe!
Great video. The lack of live performers in the parks is such a bummer. All I can think about when I hear that is if Iger "just" earned $30,000,000 a year instead of $41,000,000, we could have all of that live entertainment back and more. I know it's a simplification, but it seems clear that executive compensation is out of control while budget cuts in the parks continue to happen.
I feel the same way - I know it's not quite as simple as that but when you think of it that way, and the value that live performances bring. It makes the parks feel so much more alive. And the parks hurting while executives make so much is a tough pill to swallow as a consumer
@@TheMouselets agreed! Hopefully the new CEO will really put guests first and profits second. My dream - bring back free Fast Passes, the Magic Express, and live performers. That's all I want. :)
I’d rather have the live performers than statues that smell like food in Storybook Circus
Igers bonus should reflect his competency or incompetence and money should be taken from it to pay for what's missing!
Agreed! They are what made Disney magical and set them apart from all the other theme parks.
They should've made an Endor land with a speeder ride similar to Hagrid's motorbike adventure.
They should have built literally anything besides what they did, it was the biggest layup of all time and they completely missed
the fans always have better ideas than disney
Disney should’ve made both Star Wars parks based on different landscapes. This would’ve gave people a reason to travel to both parks. Everyone would win. Oh well
Baatu was the worst choice. They should have built a place that we already had an emotional attachment to. Maybe not Tatooine, a desert planet isn't interesting, but Coruscant would have been epic!
This was corporate greed. I love Galaxy's Edge and for 5 minutes I just wanted to sit in the Millennium Falcon but that's not what Kathleen Kennedy wants. She wants everyone to forget about Star Wars 4-7 because she can't make money on it. So I was rushed on to the ride and then out the exit. I can't even get a few minutes to soak it in. Sad.
Coruscant would have been so cool! And also a real challenge for imagineers. It would be cool if they had illusions in the strategic spots through the land that made it look like people weren’t walking on the surface of the planet but instead made it look as if we were on some walkways half way up.
Not to mention the dumb phrases that were NEVER uttered in Star Wars. “Bright suns” and “Rising moons”. WTF?!??
Ignoring the fact that Coruscant isn’t nearly as iconic a location as the bland and miserable deserts of Tatooine, what would Coruscant even look like as a land in a theme park? It’s a vertically dense city that takes up an entire planet. There’s no way to represent such a thing in a park as an immersive land and make it interesting. Look at literally any scene taking place there and tell me how it would work. What? Are you going to be on floors 72 and 73 looking up at forced perspective skyscrapers and down at a ravine that’s just a big screen you can’t walk on? What are you gonna do on floors 72 and 73? Become a Jedi? *No, goofy.* The Jedi Temple is that forced perspective building off in the distance.
This is one of those situations where fans just don’t actually know what they want and don’t understand what they’re asking for. As you can see in the above replies, many SW fans are dumb as rocks.
I’ve been saying it for years: The problem lays in the source material. The world of Star Wars was just never a good fit for an immersive land. “Star Wars Land” looks great when you write it down, but it quickly falls apart the moment you start trying to dream it up in earnest. It’s just really not that great of a setting to be in. The locales are all intentionally down to earth on some level, despite their sci-fi aspects.
@@KramericaIndustries-jd9cy This might be the single stupidest complaint about Galaxy’s Edge ever written. I love that for you.
Not making it based on the original trilogy was a fatal mistake, it also lacks kinetic energy which could be easily fixed with live performers
The scrapped Banta ride would've given the land Kinetic energy.
When Disney announced that they were building a Star Wars land, I had a dream about going and in my dream it was themed to Tatooine. So, yes, in my heart I believe they should have built Tatooine instead. Also, who cares about timeline continuity for characters? Like really, if you care, please reply telling me why you care. The fact that there is no Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, or Jar-Jar Binks meet and greet at STAR WARS LAND of all places will never cease to amaze me. I visited once, and feel like I never need to go again. If they had original trilogy or even prequel characters consistently meeting and greeting, or walking around, I would have visited at least three times by now.
Making it identical at HS and DL was a massive error. It can’t possibly have saved that much cash and it definitely cheapens the experience that they’re the same.
It also kills any motivation to go to both parks.
I finally went to both Oga's Cantina locations within the last couple years and they are an exact carbon copy of each other. Even the 2 Trader Sam's locations have differences. Such a massive mistake.
Extremely stupid on their behalf. Wow is massive they have so much land. But they just jammed in the drain that works for California. They should have made launch bay transition into the land and then they should have made another area so maybe 2 worlds and making them different would encourage trips to both places. And just 2 rides for the biggest franchise ever is just silly. Even toy story has more rides
The only thing worse than Galaxy's Edge is Avengers campus. Disney has absolutely no clue what they are doing these days when building and designing attractions and lands. It's almost like they have fired the entire imaginary staff and are getting their ideas from the guy who runs the projector. This will be one of the biggest mistakes Disney ever made not going with the original trilogy. Galaxy's Edge is completely dead, it has no movement it has no cozy feel to it. The bantha ride that would have moved around the land was needed so so so so so badly. They need to add a couple flat rides and a walk through attraction and a sit-down restaurant. Imagine a walk through attraction where you enter into Jabbas throne room and you go down to the basement where you hear and see a Rancor foot sticking out from behind a cave. The possibilities are endless on what they could have done, instead they went with this ridiculous Bland and boring idea
I know that they didn't want to break the ilusion by having different eras mixed. But focusing in the sequel era was a mistake. The fun of Disneyland is that it's like a play room where you play with all your different toys and sets mixed together. They should have had a planet for each trilogy. Coruscant for the Prequels, Tatooine for the Originals and maybe Takodana for the Sequels. But the best thing they could do know is to retheme it into the Mandoverse era (Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Book of Boba Fett, Skeleton Crew)
Batu means crystal meth in The Philippines and here in Hawaii so i have never appreciated the name but love how far it had come when i was there for the 4th or 5th time in September 2023. That was my 1st time seeing Chopper and R2D2 running around as well as Boba Fett, Hera, Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano and several others. Pretty amazing how interactive and funny they all were. I was completely starstruck. Watched R2D2 work on the Falcon for half an hour one day, the rest of the time he was roaming the crowd: once or twice alone and once or twice with Rey (PS -- Hidden Mickeys on ceiling of Fantasyland entrance gate)
Them not going with Tatooine is just a huge insult. Although, honestly, it could've been worse. They could've made bootleg Tatooine (Jakku) the land theme. 😂
The easiest way to bring LIFE to Galaxy's Edge would be to have a droid just move back and forth across those bridges/elevated stages. Just use a conveyor belt to move them back and forth. Have the head turn side-to-side, add a few sound effects and blinking lights. Done! No need to hire a performer.
They really missed the mark with Galaxy’s Edge. You don’t feel like you’re in the Star Wars universe. Not incorporating legendary characters was a huge mistake 🤷♂️
What about the land doesn’t feel like Star Wars? Just because it’s not a fan service, member Berry filled land doesn’t mean it’s not Star Wars. It looks just like a planet pulled out of the OG.
@ Well because like the Harry Potter Lands you actually feel like you’ve entered the world in the films. Batuu is a made up planet that is cool but doesn’t transport me to any of the films. I can only dream of seeing R2 and 3PO strolling through the streets of GE😢
@@disneyresortsfanI’m a big Star Wars fan. Don’t like the new trilogy, but I do feel like I’m on a Star Wars planet. I think they did it pretty well. Could they do better? For sure. It only takes to expand the land with some new things and also add the original and prequel trilogy characters
its like corporate star wars lol
@@butter2254what? for you to be put into star wars, you have to be placed into a recognizable spot. but to make it easier and less prone to error they just made up a new planet😂
I think they missed the point too. There is a whole new generation who loves the original Star Wars series. My kids love the original films and so do all of their friends. The original is iconic. They should have went with that and let the new films take a back seat.
A Star Wars land with a walking AT-AT and X-Wings flying overhead in formation. Thats what we wanted.
23:38 I’ll never forget it was a literal YEAR of them saying it would be insane. I read articles saying 200k ppl opening day. It scared people away. I know we delayed our trip because of it
Since Disney world’s galaxy’s edge opened after Disneyland, they knew not to make the same mistakes, and did not scare away the guests. They also did not implement a virtual queue to get into the land.
"There are way more Star Wars stories ahead of us than behind us ... and here's a movie that's basically mining nostalgia for the first movie."
Galaxies Edge relying SO HEAVILY on a place that nobody knows or resonates with is old-school-Disney, a “parks only lore” that just doesn’t work with IP that is so established that a knockoff version makes no sense.
And then when it comes to other new lands all they ever come up with is movie IP stuff. How great it would be if they’d go back to making completely original lands and rides again. Some of the very best Disney rides are all totally original stories. That creativity is totally lacking these days.
Just discovered your channel. FANTASTIC! Thank you! Keep up the great work 👍 👏
Not building Tatooine was a huge mistake. They did a great job with batu, but it could have been so much better. And it’s a once-and-done land. Everything is so expensive, (build a droid, lightsaber, cantina) that a guest just doesn’t wander around on additional visits.
You did a great job creating this video… Especially explaining the history of how it got to where it is today. I really do like galaxy edge, but also wish it had some of the features that were promised. Thank you for sharing this information. I know it was probably a lot of work. I also think if they creative enough, they could have added a Star Wars Legacy portion to this land, thus showing all the Star Wars for the old old fans. At least, if the legacy land was at Disney World , it could just be created by expanding Galaxies Edge back over to Star Tours area.
They should have built Tattooine mainly because it encompasses all 9 movies.
Should have built Tatooine. Mix in all characters (keep in separate appearances to protect the timeline if necessary), incorporate Jedi Training, etc. Grow it with old and new characters, droids, etc.
Refresh it.Make the land reflect the origional trilogy
Excellent video! Thanks for the deep dive. You earned a new subscriber!
It was a bad move. Would have gone over better with the past and potentially expand with the new
Problem w/Galaxy's Edge is limiting it to the Sequel Trilogy timeline. It also needs some sort of coaster attraction, perhaps similar to Tron Lightcycle. The footprint of Galaxy's Edge is there for something even greater than what they have now. They need more pilots, creatures Mandalorians & aliens, walking around the land, perhaps outside the barrier, where the catwalks & buildings are, having conversations. A walk-around Hondo Onaka or Twi'Leek, for instance, would give the land so much life. Even just adding smoke effects along w/blinking lights & spinning antennas on buildings would cost next to nothing & make the place seem more alive & immersive. Finally, they should get rid of that First Order shuttle & make it either an Imperial/Tyderium-style ship or a 1st Order TIE Fighter like the concept maquette.
First video of yours I've watched - it was fantastic!
Very clear and informative presentation style ❤️💚🩵
2:19
my dad and my godfather were there that day! They stayed overnight in the park in line for the opening of Star Tours! My dad would have been in his early 20's. He's said he was heartbroken about Monsanto, but that Star Tours made it almost okay.
Classic Disney World isn’t just a park, it’s a transcendent experience and every little detail pulls you more and more into the magic of it. I don’t like the dramatic focus on IP for every single new attraction when my favorite experiences are completely original, but the true tragedy of WDW is slowly cutting all of the little details, the “fluff” that doesn’t have a direct ROI. Yes, cutting here and there doesn’t matter, but when almost all of those little experiences and bits of theming you used to stumbled upon have been completely removed from the parks, it starts to feel like a wasteland.
I really don’t understand why you would ignore almost 50 yrs of fandom to appease new fans who honestly are probably not going to be life long fans. Nobody cares about Kylo or Rey. Vader, Luke, Han and Leia are characters that will live on forever. Nothing will ever top the first 3 films! So why build a land that doesn’t live and breathe the essence of Star Wars???
Didn’t they recently cancel plans of building a Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Paris? That should be an indicator on the future success of Disney Star Wars.
I have to admit, I clicked on this based on the thumbnail. Great job overall, but I thought we were going to hear more about that pic in the thumbnail.
An ewok village would be cool to have
loving the longer video format
I'd really like to see them expand Galaxy Edge to add Tattooine, Hoth to the area or even Coruscant or Alderaan area with a pod race ride, a x-wing ride or TIE fighter ride. Hoth would be cool if Disney could pull it off where you could ride a tauntaun to escape from a Wampa not to mention a cold planet like that sorta Blizzard Beach feel but even more icy feel. Coruscant would be cool too if they could make it feel like it was onscreen if not that then maybe Alderaan would be a great idea too plus you could do like Epic Universe and make a hotel that looks out onto the area or Coruscant area . Tattooine where you could see Luke's house, Jawas, Hurt palace where you could have pod races, shops, and all the grittiness like Mos Eisley spaceport would be cool too.
They should have built Couresant and Tatooine. Minimum.
Disney has been trying to play catch up with Star Wars ever since the Last Jedi split the fan base. They continually reference a storyline that was unsuccessful due to poor planning and vision. They've shown they can make good Star Wars when they let people passionate about it and who care about it run with it. But they continue to shoot themselves in the foot by corporate getting in the way of creatives or hiring people who want to push a message rather than a good story.
I have loved Star Wars my whole life. So it's so sad seeing it absolutely floundering in the hands of people who don't know what to do with it.
They can do well with it, but they need to leave their failures in the past and focus on the fans and Georges Star Wars and trying to emulate his vision rather than pushing their own.
Props to whoever came up with the Walk around Max Goof in Hollywood studios! Saw him there and he was cracking me up!
You should do a video about where Galaxy’s Edge was located in Disneyland, first Tomorrowland then Mickey’s Toontown until finally where Big Thunder Ranch is and some of the backstage areas
I learned so much. Thank you.
No mention of the sequel trilogy backlash to the Star Wars Galaxy edge land ? I mean there were some fans that were not happy for this new land to be based on the sequel trilogy and not the original one. Shouldn't that be mention as well ?
THIS IS WHY UNIVERSAL IS BETTER, AND WILL WIN. IT'S NOT A WORLD THAT "FEELS" LIKE HARRY POTTER, it IS Harry Potter. The castle, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, etc. You see it in the movie, and then you get to live it. Even more of TODAY'S generation better knows/recognizes Darth Vader over Kylo Ren. The original trilogy has crossed and transcended generations. Disney got too prideful and TOO cocky. It should've been Tatooine with the original/real cantina. Each Disney park across the world could've gotten a different planet too. I will never get over them dropping the ball this hard.
Bless your heart. Universal is a very distant 2nd place. Has always been. Never even close. Their busiest year is barely busier than disneys smallest and least busy park.
Take a ride on Jurassic park, look at the dinosaurs, and get a feel for how bad universal gets over time.
Harry Potter is somewhat new. Give it a few years and it’ll be falling apart like their other rides.
And I haven’t even mentioned the difference in the quality of the target customer. Heck - they’ve got an entire UA-cam channel dedicated to all the arrests they have in those parks.
And I haven’t even mentioned that Disney owns marvel and the Simpsons - probably 1/4 of the areas in universal…
@@Meatball2022couldn’t have said it better 😂. Universal will NEVER come even close to topping Disney…even on Disneys worst day.
Universal is still playing garbage like “Fast and Furious” and all the other junk that’s lackluster at best for the past 20 years. They did get “Harry Potter”, but anyone majority of the population has zero interest whatsoever in that nor even picked up one of the books. Myself included.
That would’ve been amazing could you imagine if each Disney Park had a different land it would’ve created such a huge revenue stream for them because Star Wars fans would be crazy enough to fly to other parks to be amerced in these land they love and could’ve had the same rides just changed up to more be amerced in that particular land and it would’nt have cost much more I would think
@@Meatball2022Well, disney doesn't own all the them park rights to Marvel, lmao. As long as universal use the IP they keep the rights. And they're getting rid of the simpsons eventually anyways lol. And their rides aren't "falling apart" especially in the past three year's.
Universal proven they can make a better immersive experience then Disney. Hell, they can barley keep their newer attractions to run smoothly, so how is disney going to manage building all of these new attractions, let's be fr.
@ Disney absolutely owns the franchise. Universal has rights to use in that park only. And they pay Disney licensing fees for it. Because that’s how things work. So, you’d be completely wrong. Lmao
The word is years. Not year’s.
The word is barely, not barley. Dolt.
Doesn’t own the them? Is our children educated?
And their stuff is falling apart. It’s a mess. Been that way for a couple of decades.
And their customer base is horrible. Absolutely horrible. So bad that they have an entire UA-cam channel dedicated to the police encounters on their property.
And they’ve proven what - to you? Ok Karen. Go back to school. Try not to eat the crayons
12:21 - And this is why she has overseen the death of Star Wars. Her comment about 50 something’s is both ignorant and shortsighted. There were at the time she said this, four decades of existing fan generations with Star Wars. Given the average human lifespan this projects a potential earning range for Star Wars of 35 years to 65 years. The first generation of fans you have would have been 5-25 in 1977 and the youngest end of that range was in their MID 40’s and not 50’s as she mistakenly suggests in that comment. This shows that she really doesn’t know her audience. The existing fans grow and recruit new fans. That’s how it’s been since the 1980’s. While it’s smart to move the story forward, you MUST build on the existing fanbase. Her stupidity here is akin to another statement made a few years later after the failure of Solo where she stated that they didn’t have decades of story’s in book and comics like Marvel did. Despite actually having hundreds of books and comics and games to draw stories from since the 1970’s EXACTLY like Marvel did. It’s as if she knows nothing about the IP she’s primarily tasked with overseeing. You know, he one that cost 4 billion dollars…
Disney never had the rights to potter, but they definitely tried to acquire them.
They negotiated for quite a while and jk Rowling wanted Disney to do it as her first choice but they had creative differences and they didn't want to give her control so she bailed on them
The worst idea in the history of ideas, was switching away from the original iconic IP material
Harry Potter transports me into areas and locations taken directly from the movie. I immediately recognize them and feel a connection. Galaxys Edge doesn’t give me that feeling (except for the millennium falcon) and is instead some vague Star Wars-ish world I’ve never seen and have no attachment to.
Disney made unforced error after unforced error.
1. The Starcruiser should have been a hotel. The costly "experience" is a one and done thing for most people who can afford it. The average Joe wouldn't go to it and those who could afford it, only did so once (unless they could really afford multiple trips and enjoyed it as the casual person enjoys amusement parks). A hotel would have led to cheaper prices (anything would be cheaper than what they were charging), and the casual fan would have loved to have stayed in a Star Wars themed hotel. I have no idea who came up with that one and approved it, but they should have been fired.
2. Making Batuu wasn't a horrible idea but setting it exclusively in the New Republic Era was. It even would have worked with an environment similar to Avengers' Campus. No one gives a fuck if they see Vader and Kylo Ren in the same 30 minute span of time; even if this was a problem, just create a schedule for days where each era is represented.
3. They should have catered the lands to specific parks to create a way for fans to want to visit each park. Once you go to Anaheim, you have no reason to fly to Paris or Florida to see their versions of the land lol. Let's restructure the lands though:
a. Disneyland gets Tatooine. This fits better with Frontierland imo and you can recreate Mos Eisley, have a show featuring the Pod Racing, have a recreation of Jabba's Palace with the ride in it and have the Millennium Falcon ride featuring Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando featured in the ride. The ride can show A New Hope or Return of the Jedi as you go through scenes and recreations of the movies with the Death Star 1 or 2 and your escape from it. Sell milk.
b. Disney World gets Endor. Place it in Echo Lake or keep it in its current spot. Make it look like Endor and have a copy of the Millennium Falcon ride and if Anaheim gets Episode 4 represented, you can do an original ride featuring Episode 6. If both do episode 6, you get to save on imagineering lol. Have a speeder ride there. Have an outside dinning experience with bonfires and treehouse dinning. Make it unique to Endor by not copying Oga's Cantina.
c. Paris gets either Batuu or have it feature Hoth or another world from the movies. Either way, you get a ride retelling either Episode 5 or keep the ride in line with what we got in our timeline lol.
d. If these were successes, you can do unique or similar experiences in other parks abroad.
Either way, what we got was less than what we should have.
There are two types of guests at Galaxys Edge: Those who love Starts Sars and those who love Disney. Both groups do not care about the new Batu lore. Nobody knows how is the spy lady with the blue hair. They have managed the impossible to make a park aim to no one.
Great Video and thanks for the back history! I've been a Star Wars Fan for 40+ years and grew up with the original trilogy. When Disney bought Star Wars, I was really skeptical about how they would handle it and possible ruin it, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited to see. Now here we are 12 years later and it's been kinda of a mess. When they announced the Star Wars Land, I was super excited and was hoping for a legacy character land, but they changed the land to a unknown planet and relied on the new trilogy of movies. I still held out faith that the land would be good and feel like Star Wars.
When I finally got to visit the land, I was honestly underwhelmed by the whole experience. The Rise of the Resistance ride is really awesome and has some jaw dropping moments, but the land as a whole feels bare and lacking. In comparison to Universals Studios Harry Potter lands, which you feel like you are in Hogsmeade and Daigon Alley, the Star Wars land just feels like a prop house setup. The real issue with Disney is the bad choices they make and the lack of putting the money into their rides and parks.
You mention that Disney is not worried about Epic Universe, they are not going to come out publicly an announce they afraid, instead they have another D23 Expo with possible broken promise...we will wait and see if the Villains Land actually becomes a reality or another great concept. It's not that Disney doesn't have people who have great ideas, they have the wrong people who choose to make the higher up decisions. This true with Star Wars and Kathleen Kennedy, just look at all the bomb projects that have come out the past 12 years.
Galaxy's Edge is fun. It still feels like I am in the Star Wars Galaxy even if I don't have an emotional attachment to it. But what I really wanted was a whole experience. Let me stay at a Star Wars hotel that doesn't cost $5000 for 2 nights. Let me explore new and old locations and transcend all periods of the films.
Love your research! Nice job
IF DISNEY WOULD JUST LISTEN TO THE FANS
Wish they would have set each of the Battu's in different eras. Give us the original trilogy in Disneyland and the sequels in Orlando - might mean that Rise of the Resistance would have been more expensive with different characters, but it would have made east and west unique while still maintaining the majority of the same buildout. It's still such a bummer that with as much money that they make per day in concessions and merch, they can't afford more people in costumes to really bring the place to life. It should feel like there's a bigger story playing out all around you - if your local Renaissance Fair can make it work, the mouse certainly could have.
What happened to the cloud city themed casino.
Yes Disney was going to do a Harry Potter land but R. K. Rowlans and Disney could not come to a agreement. Disney would not let Rowlans have creative control of the land.
EVERYONE expected to visit the original Star Wars, seeing Darth Vader, and his siter Ella, Hans Solo, Skywalker and Princess Lea.
But the park was an incredible dissapointment, and what made it worse was putting up a paywall and taking away any kind of street entertainment, leaving Gal Edge basically an over themed mall.
Killing off Skywalker and Hans Solo, and you can figure Princess Lea would have been targeted as well, tore countless fans of the Star Wars legacy away. The new Legacy movies made no sense, followed no theme and were basically disregarded as di$ney Trash.
They could easily transform the land back to Tatooine with the droids and alien creatures running about, but they won't.
they don't want to spend the money on the guests experience and they still think they can save New StarWars, which won't happen. That series is now toast.
The Gal Starcruzer was an interesting idea, it was basically they type if interaction you would have received from early days magic kingdom, before the money grab by di$ney happened, but the rediculous pricing to stay 2 nights killed it.
Pretty much the only experience there that would catch most hearts would be the children. The children were taken all in with the acting and participation. It was heart warming to see the children, running down the hall with Chewbakka to hide him from Imperial Guards who where in hot persuit to capture Chewy. those kids would go home with memories that will not be forgotten for years.
But the cost was out of hand, but considering todays prices at the resorts, probably was coming into similar rates now.
Galactic edge was a ploy by IGER to try to open the money maker but he cut the budget where there were no more leaves on the tree, the entertainment was gone, and so are the guests interests.
I’m glad Disney didn’t build Tatooine. We’ve seen that. What makes Star Wars interesting and fresh is seeing new worlds and characters. Batuu brings that.
I never knew this. I can't believe they F'ed this up.
Building Batuu was absolutely smart. Bc yes they can bring new and old characters in (like Chewy or Dinjarin or Kilo) and keep to a new time line. Yes the timeline would still fit. Vs being stuck in one period. And with the jungle mountainous planet of Batuu, it allowed for amazing “natural” sounds around Galaxy’s Edge. Something you don’t get at Universal.
A Mandalorian ride might be cool.
I would like to see them expand the timeline and worlds. I can imagine a Tattooine/Empire era section that transitions to Batuu. Much the same way that Avengers Campus and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Break out are delineated by the walkways. Characters could be seen only in the areas relating to their timeline. That way you could have Vader and other original trilogy characters without seeming anachronistic.
the living place/land was so hyped up that yes they could of gotten away with it not being an OT landmark. where you could earn xp, and pick up your adventure the next time you visited. i was so heart broken, as well as the 12y/o me, hearing the land was nothing like that.
Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley work as immersive lands because we've SEEN them before in the movies. We're being transported INTO a movie or a book, not just a vague "universe". You're THERE, in that place you saw on a screen. With Batuu however, it isn't anywhere that anyone has been, so it's automatically not as immersive. It's kinda like taking a person who loves Germany but has never been, dropping them in Helen, Georgia, telling them "This is basically Germany. In fact, it's much better!" And then expecting praise 😂 They're probably gonna like it, but it'll take some convincing and it'll never be the real deal. For Disney, the onus is on them to *convince* us of the immersion of Batuu. That's where the droids and aliens and shows would come in because the architecture and rides aren't enough, but since all of that requires more work and money, they basically gave themselves an uphill battle with the fans. The Harry Potter lands, however, when you think about it, don't need any of that. They don't NEED actors and shows and stuff because the architecture, ambience, and expectations (most importantly) do most of the work. Anything additional feels like a happy add-on, whereas for Batuu, it's absolutely necessary and when Disney struggles to deliver that extra stuff, the experience flops.
I think Universal was kinda genius in getting around that issue with their newest HP location. There aren't many other places for a fan to go in the Wizarding World other than the Ministry of Magic (which they can't make into a whole land), so anywhere they chose to accompany the MoM would have been kinda like a Batuu for HP... I GUARANTEE that's why they chose Paris. For HP fans, Paris has no hype. It's from a poorly-received sequel movie in a poorly-received prequel trilogy... On the surface, that's a total yikes 😬😂 However, it's Paris... a real place that people all over the world love (especially Americans)! They're basically able to bank on two aesthetic experiences at once with this land 🤯 so if one flops, they have the other! 😂 I'm betting it's gonna succeed with flying colors tho, and funnily enough, if it does, we might be able to thank Disney's Batuu mistake for that 🤣🤪
This is why Lucasfilm needs its own theme park far far away from other Disney parks. Have a place like this for Star Wars, a large area for Indy, an area for Willow, and I would also put all of the Jim Henson stuff in there, too, like Muppet Studios and even areas based on Sesame Street.
BTW, your mic picks up your hair rubbing against it pretty strongly. I'd recommend placing it closer to your collar. If not, your editing software should have some kind of voice isolation software. If not, Id recommend DaVinci Resolve. There's is VERY good.
No Darth Vader. Ridiculous.
one very important fact is always omitted in these retrospectives. when you use old star wars characters, planets, ships and designs you have to pay royalties to the creators of those things. and disney wasn’t interested in paying those fees, they wanted to keep all the revenue for themselves. no old stuff. make up new “star wars like” products they owned outright and that’s why everything feels off about the new star wars.
Disney bought all rights to Star Wars form Lucas. They own all of it, lock, stock and barrel. Disney does not have to pay any fees or royalties to use the old star wars characters, planets, ships and designs. That is why it is never mentioned.
OK no one called the Black Hole a copy of Star Wars at the time. Yes, it was a response,in part, to Star Wars, but it’s super clear that it was taking a lot from another Disney movie 20,000 Leaugues Under the Sea. The original script was actually written in 1974 three years before Star Wars came out and it was a disaster in space sort of story. They retooled it once Star Wars came out, but really the only thing Star Wars-like about it is that it was in space and there were robots. It’s much more of a Gothic horror in space with a dash of Forbidden Planet and a 2001 Space Odyssey ending.
Disney really doesn't understand Star Wars. "The" Star Wars mega-fans are ones that grew up with the classic saga. They are the ones with the money, and the kids to bring to the park. I understand that Disney wanted to use their new IP but the Skywalkers would get people into the park. To illustrate this, EVERYONE has to get their pictures taken in front of the Falcon at Galaxy's Edge. I think the Galactic Star Cruiser would have been far more successful if they had just made it a themed resort with themed restaurants and patrons could come and go. I think their hubris got the best of them. It was over thought and too much in the beginning. Their biggest problem is that Disney has stopped listening to the fans. The have the mindset of giving the patrons what they think they should have instead of what they want.
My Ideal Version of Galaxy’s Edge:
A totally unique version of STAR WARS Galaxy’s Edge adjacent to STAR TOURS
Location:
A reimagined Echo Lake area
Attractions:
- Jedi Training Academy
- STAR TOURS
- Galaxy’s Edge Launch Bay
- Millennium Falcon
- Rise of the Resistance
- a Peoplemover Creature
- a Speeder Bike ride
- a ground-up STAR WARS roller coaster
They could start by finishing the bantha ride that they partially built, but due to budget cuts scrapped. Also, they could make the interactive element an up charge, and for regular returning guests a subscription. Sadly, what I would have suggested is for each "Star Wars Land" is to be visually different. Have the same basic rides, but the visuals and interactive elements would have been a different planet at each park. Go to Orlando, get one visual experience. Go to California, get a different. Go to Paris, Hong Kong, get others. You get my point. Those willing to spend the money, and die hard fans would not rest till they experienced every park.
The Force Awakens could’ve been a blank screen and make $2 billion, due to pent up demand. Personally I was looking around the theater thinking “Is everyone here seeing what I’m seeing?” It was a complete rehash of the first film(episode IV). That’s exactly what Lucas said. Film Threat’s Chris Gore felt similarly, adding that it was professional negligence to not reunite the original trio of Han Luke and Leia. $2 billion or not, the damage was done. The inept handling of Star Wars and the enormous debt Iger was incurring made it seems Iger was dismantling Disney, handing the future of theme parks to Universal.
Maybe not a blank screen. People were lured with nostalgia bait of the original characters and cast members and the tease of seeing them together again. That was a bait-and-switch for the type of film and story they gave us.
As much as I dislike KK, i feel that she was right in convincing Iger to make Galaxy's Edge set in the PT. As much as the old school fans dislike the PT, there's a tong of little kids out there who have literally grown up with the PT and to them that's Star Wars, just like how the generation before them adore the PT and resonate strongly with it. I see setting Galaxy's edge in the ST as forward looking, getting all of the kids who've grown up with the sequels begging mommy and daddy to go to either park to see Galaxy's Edge in the hopes of seeing Rey and/or Kylo Ren because those are the characters they know and love.
I knew Sage from AllEars was a cast member in Orlando, didn’t realize he was in the Galactic Starcruiser (30:20)
I came to the comments to see if anyone else spotted Sage! He mentioned once that he was on the Galactic Starcruiser and I went back to watch a few vloggers videos but didn’t see him. So cool to see that clip!
I was lucky enough to go on the Starcrusier and he was my favorite character by far!
Great video. Good points. Will add: 1. Disney Strategy is Content is King. Until Kathleen can hire competent people to create great SW stories there will be $0 investment into the parks. 2. WDW already responded to Epic by announcing additions of Indiana jones, zootopia show, encanto, Villians land, and Cars land. Half are copies from DLR or tech is the same meaning relatively low investment = low chance of new SW. 😢
The real problem with Galaxy's Edge was the focus on the Sequel Trilogy, especially the divisive effect The Last Jedi had on the franchise. Like it or hate it, that movie led to the derailment of the Sequel Trilogy, and compromised anything associated with it. IMO, they should just cut their losses and go back to the Tationne land idea. Focus on Original Trilogy characters, and the new Mandalorian universe.
I've come to realize the incredible ego and wannabe Hollywood hot shots in the executives has cost the company many billions. They choose to ignore the most die hard fans, over and over, as a matter of fact they despise the hard core fans. They want to be the "geniuses" behind the big Hollywood movie hits. They have to show what business successes, and movie producers they are. And in doing so they lose billions. And ironically, the Parks that they think are not prestigious enough in Hollywood are the only profitable part of the company.
But had they built Tatooine they could literally print billions there alone. Dark Vader. Luke. Leia. They ruined the Sequels and still insisted on that IP only because they have to be the Hollywood hot shots.
It was telling when there were Park folks trying to get on the Board last year. Disney publicly announced they weren't qualified because they weren't TV and movie people. Their while Board is TV and Movie people, and they couldn't stand the idea of two people who were focused on the Parks even though the Parks are the only profitable division and get raided to pay for their incompetence in TV and Movies.
Iger saw "how good" the Sequels would be. LMFAO
I’m one of the 50 year olds that’s Kathleen Kennedy doesn’t care about. :) But I still felt like Batuu was great. I especially liked drinking blue milk in front of guys dressed as Stormtroopers while it sounded like spaceships were flying overhead next to a docking bay. That is undeniably a Star Wars experience!
And Rise of the Resistance put me in the middle of a screen accurate Star Wars battle. I didn’t care that it wasn’t the characters I grew up with. It was so much fun and really well done.
Yes, some promises were broken: I wanted a canteena filled with weird aliens, Smuggler’s Run should have 12 different missions by now, there should be 2 more rides in the land and 4 less places to buy things.
But I enjoyed what WAS there so much. I’m grateful for the experiences I got to have in Star Wars land.
“I saw a stormtrooper and the millenium falcon, it was great”
@ yup. You have a fantastic day!
It's going to be so much fun watching Galaxy's Edge get torn down to avoid paying billions in royalties when the Walt Disney Company is broken up under anti monopoly law and Lucasfilm is taken away. Like who's going to miss Star Wars in the Disney parks or Disney owning Lucasfilm?
Go on.. tell us how the mouse did a bad touch on you. Let it out.
@@brianthered You will show proper respect to a military man, civvie. You take orders from me. I will take over Disney myself and make it great again by bringing back the "What would Walt do?" way of thinking and keeping Disney stuck in the 20th century. The parks will only allow registered Disney purists and traditionalists in. You'll do better to think of the parks like the Augusta National Golf Club.
Not everyone has seen the original trilogy, and it is not even everyone's favorite, and it is not everyone's reference point to Star Wars. I personally think that a Tatooine based land, would have been very limiting, and not and exciting from a story telling perspective. I like that they did something different! My kids love it and I have fun every time I go.
Initially, I would have built Galaxy's Edge in one park and base the land on an existing planet from any of the films. Me, I would have kept with Tatooine as it features in 6 of the movie episodes, and it wouldn't seem weird seeing Rey, Anakin, Luke, Obi-wan etc. People simply want to emerse themselves with what they are familiar with. I think even if it initially opened with one main attraction and spent a bigger portion of the budget on animatronics to make the land feel more lively. Turn the shop attendants into aliens. For a second version of the land, maybe choose a different planet.
RIP, the Bantha ride
So every idea had to go through the Iger/Kennedy filter of ‘but will it make money?’ and an immersive land became a shopping mall.
I’ve really enjoyed your videos each week. I’m sad that this is how Disney handled the Star Wars IP as they could have made it so much better. Universal has done amazing with HP and adding in more so that it feels like you are immersed in that world. Hopefully they will learn and do better in the future.
It baffles me that they didn’t use Batoo for the Resistance base in TRoS.
Peter Pan is a character from 114 years ago and they just built an amazing ride around him in Fantasy Springs in Tokyo. Don’t tell me Luke Skywalker is too old to be the focus of a ride!
I hate Kathleen Kennedy so much!! I hate the direction shes taken the Star Wars franchise in. Disney also hasn’t helped at all with the franchise.
"The cope is strong with this one", your talking about a park where a drink can cost 17$ or higher, they got plenty of $.
I really wouldn't say they missed the mark. I think the lack of some type of kinetic attraction tones it down compared to what we're use to seeing in the movies. The Bantha ride would've been a great addition as well as the druids even if they were performing duties in an unaccessible area.
Such a mistake on their part basing the lands on unknown areas based on the current films. When the age range of fans of the newest movies is like 5-12. They aren't adults yet and dont got adult bucks. Should have based it on the old star wars to get the adults happy. And could have slowly added new parts as the new fans age up. Such a fumble.
you do realize that no one heard of Tatooine before A New Hope came out?
@@MikeFarnhamGalaxysEdgeGroup and you do realize that, no one created a Star Wars land at a theme park in the 70's. For that very reason.
Imagine if Harry Potter land was all Fantastic Beasts and no harry potter. They underestimated how much fans wanted the classic story
Also, The Mouselets says Batuu needs a refresh, 2 days later Luke is announced as a walk around character, hahaha
Many aspects of Galaxy’s Edge could be criticized, but there is one sin park fans can’t forgive: over promising and under delivering. It is a characteristic of park development we would see become a way of doing business.
This channel is incredible. But we've got to get you a better mic. You have a great narration style and voice and they deserves to be picked up and recorded in quality.
No Disney CEO has FAILED more than Bob Iger. The IP killer!
Disney when I take over will undo all traces of him and I will make Disney great again. Everything will be done by asking "What would Walt do?" again like Disney management did after his passing. Even if that means keeping Disney stagnant and stuck in the 20th century.
I wanted a STAR WARS land adjacent to STAR TOURS!
I really enjoy Black Spire Outpost, and while I don't think it's a mistake in itself, I think committing only to that point in the timeline was. I agree with Kennedy's take that the focus needs to be on the younger fans rather than the 50-something like myself, but it feels like they sometimes go out of their way to abandon the older fans (who all to often are the ones paying for the younger fans... their kids, to enjoy the content. So maybe they should have thrown a few more bones our way).
I think the Star Wars World would have benefited greatly from some further diversification. For instance, while keeping Batuu as a central hub, they could have added 2-3 other planets to the attraction, even if in lesser formats. The "Rise of the Resistance" ride is pretty good, but could have been more or less duplicated with different footage and set dressing as a "Battle of Hoth" ride as well, splitting the load between the two. The "Soaring over California (or Soaring around the World) ride would make a wonderful Ewok Hang Glider themed ride. A Podracing ride seems like it should have been mandatory. Maybe some fine dining on Coruscant. And you might not even have to cluster all these extra attractions into the same space if you make a Star Tours variant that also functions as an actual transit device to shuttle guests "between worlds" so you could put these in lesser used buildings or open space in other areas of the park. Once you have the infrastructure worked out on that, you could even rework and replace some of these attractions if they prove insufficiently popular over time, or just need to be updated to something fresher (or more nostalgic). And if there's some cognitive dissonance over events on these other attractions happening during different stages in the timeline, I'm sure most everyone will cope with that just fine.
Another area that could use improvement is expanding the interior on some of the more popular attractions. Oga's Cantina for instance, has a lot of really neat stuff in it to see, but it's difficult to enjoy because it feels cramped and overpacked (doesn't help that you may have to wait 30 minutes, an hour, or even longer to get in).
I also agree there needs to be more "characters" more or less visible. Some of those performance bridges could benefit from a track that at least allows minimally animatronic Stormtroopers to "march" across from time to time. And yeah, more aliens. I understand the difficulty with free roaming droids, because you just can't trust a wild audience not to interact with them inappropriately, whether through malice or a child trying to hug something and knocking it over. But people in costumes is pretty much an expected standard for Disneyland so making a few more of those costumes into Star Wars aliens would be nice (even if they sometimes have to settle for being caricature costumes instead of screen accurate).