It was just a few short years ago that the Walt Disney Company was proudly announcing and opening their “Star Wars” themed land in multiple parks across the country.
Disney invested billions of dollars in the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge design and construction, based on a fictional world called “Batuu.” They hyped up technology and immersive elements meant to enhance the guest experience and allow for fans to spend hours in Galaxy’s Edge. And return time and time again to build up experience points by interacting with props and characters.
“Batuu” was purposefully set in the world of the newest trilogy, led by characters like Rey and Kylo Ren. All thanks to advice from then-head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, to then-Disney CEO Bob Iger.
A Stormtrooper stands in front of a TIE interceptor during a media preview of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney Co.’s Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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And now, after just a few years in operation, new leadership at the top is completely changing the entire plan behind Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. In the process, admitting they completely missed the mark with their multi-billion dollar project.
Star Wars Lands Bringing Back Original Characters
One former top executive at Walt Disney World once explained in an interview why Galaxy’s Edge focused on the new trilogy and not the beloved original movies and characters. Because Kathleen Kennedy gave awful advice to Bob Iger.
“We got a call one day,” said former WDW VP Dan Cockerell. “They said, ‘Well, we got some news for you all.’ And the Imagineering guys, they’ve heard this line many, many times during their careers. And I had never been through this.” “They said, ‘Well, yesterday Bob Iger met with Kathleen Kennedy, who as a lot people may know was sort of George Lucas’ protégé and headed up Lucasfilm. And they had a conversation. They had a meeting. And Kathleen Kennedy, her point of view was, there are way more Disney Star Wars stories ahead of us than behind us. So we really should think about do we want to build a Tatooine, and build what all the fifty-somethings remember Star Wars is or do we want to build something else which is going to appeal to all the upcoming generations who are going to know the new stories.'”
Don’t focus the land on characters people like, focus it instead on the new movies, Kennedy said. And Iger listened. Well, those new movies have come and gone, and “Star Wars” has never meant less in the national conversation. Sure enough, under new CEO Josh D’Amaro, Disney announced this month that they were bringing Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker into Galaxy’s Edge, as well as finally incorporating John Williams’ beloved score from the original films.
That’s how you know they’re admitting they made a gigantic mistake listening to Kathleen Kennedy.
Bringing these characters into Galaxy’s Edge makes no logical or thematic sense, particularly since they’re being portrayed as their younger selves from the original trilogy. But Disney is desperate to make their gigantic investment in Galaxy’s Edge worth it, so they’re hoping characters people actually like will bring new fans and keep them there longer.
Park visitors walk near the entrance to the Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run ride during a preview of the Star Wars themed land, Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios at Disney World. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
It’s a series of unforced errors. They made mediocre movies that have been mostly forgotten, assumed that people cared about Rey and Kylo Ren or Fin or Poe Dameron, and then bet billions of dollars that their newer stories would be more popular moving forward than the old ones. They were wrong about all of it. None of the depth, complexity, charm, or swashbuckling excitement of the original characters is present in the new movies. Because Kathleen Kennedy was involved in creating them. They haven’t released a new “main trilogy” Star Wars movie in years, and aren’t close to releasing one.
Now they’re having to undo these mistakes, without spending billions to reconfigure the land. What a disaster. And even more frustratingly, a predictable and avoidable one.
