By Zach Johnson
Bright suns, D23 Members and Star Wars superfans!
Today marked the highly anticipated grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. Bob Chapek, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, was joined by Hondo Ohnaka, R2-D2, Chewbacca, BB-8, and Vi Moradi as fireworks exploded overhead during the land’s dedication ceremony. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will officially open to the public August 29, 2019.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which opened at Disneyland Park in California on May 31, 2019, is the largest and most technologically advanced single-themed land expansion in Disney history. The 14-acre land takes guests to the remote planet of Batuu, full of unique sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. In the new land, you’ll become part of your own Star Wars story as you experience galactic food and beverages, like the iconic Blue Milk and Green Milk. You can craft your own lightsabers or build your own droids in immersive, interactive retail experiences. You can also explore an intriguing collection of merchant shops and may even cross paths with Star Wars characters, like Rey and Kylo Ren—not to mention the garrison of Stormtroopers patrolling Black Spire Outpost!
“With the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we’ve set a new standard for the most immersive storytelling in the galaxy,” Chapek said. “Every experience in Batuu—from piloting the Millennium Falcon to building your own droid—puts guests deeper into their own Star Wars story.” It’s for those reasons—and many more—that TIME magazine recently named Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge one of the “World’s Greatest Places 2019.”
In one of the land’s signature attractions, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, guests take the controls of the “fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy” as pilots, gunners, or flight engineers in an experience that responds in real time to the actions they take. A thrilling and ambitious second attraction, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, opens December 5, 2019, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and January 17, 2020, at Disneyland. In the most immersive and advanced attraction ever imagined, you’ll join the Resistance’s fight against the First Order for an experience that blurs the line between fantasy and reality!
