Star Wars has been a part of the Disney family of theme parks since the debut of the Star Tours attractions in 1987. But despite a recent conversion to Star Tours: The Adventure Continues (oooh), Disney is looking to add even more Star Wars goodness to their parks. Because you don’t just buy Lucasfilm to make Jedi movies and copious amounts of Willow merchandise, you buy it so that you can make a full recreation of the Galactic Senate complete with an animatronic Jimmy Smits. Or something.
Here’s Disney President Bob Iger on the company’s theme park plans for Star Wars.
“There will be a much larger ‘Star Wars’ presence in our parks globally,” Iger said “But we want to do this big, which takes time, and to do it right…I didn’t want someone to say, ‘I just saw the movie and there’s nothing in that movie in this (attraction).’ We waited to see what this film would have in it.”
Remember when Las Vegas almost built a full-scale replica of the Enterprise on the strip for people to tour, but it got scuttled by people who wear neckties? I have two words for Disney: Millennium Falcon.
By the way, if you’re wondering why Disney hasn’t been full-steam ahead on these projects with a plan to open up some kind of immense new Star Wars themed world in time for the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s because they couldn’t divulge to designers what was going to be in the upcoming films. And sure as Meghan Trainor is all about that bass, Disney is all about the upcoming films when it comes to the rides they want to make.
“We couldn’t tell them what was new,” Iger said. “I slowed it all down so what we come forward with will have a blend of the past, present and maybe the future. Now we have a sense of what’s in ‘Star Wars 8,’ and what some of the standalone films will have in them.”
That is, of course, a gamble. But it’s probably a minimal one. These park experiences are paid for by adults, but children are their key demographic and it’s going to be harder for them to connect with the original trilogy and experiences and attractions that reflect on those films. It hurt me as much to type that as it hurt you to read it. But it’s true.
The bottom line is, for parents who are Star Wars mega-fans, this is another way to share the saga with your kids. A very expensive way, but a way all the same. Iger also name checked the “past,” so it’s possible that there will also be something for long suffering Star Wars fans as well.
As long as I’m looking at the glass as half full, it’s also worth noting that Disney didn’t turn the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride into Jar Jar’s Underwater Gungan Adventure when they had the chance, so we must be as grateful for that as we are for my command of tired references.
Via Coming Soon