Galaxy's Edge is great. My one and only visit was back at the end of 2019, what seems like so long ago now. I enjoyed the rides, but I particularly loved the level of detail and texture in the land, making it really transformative in a way that wasn't previously found in Hollywood Studios. I found it so inspiring that, as I often do, I immediately began to imagine ideas of what to add to it if anything was possible. These bluesky ideas have been swirling around in my head for over a year, and I was unsure if I would ever do anything with them.
Eventually, the decision to put together a plan and share won out, and that lead to this first new post in a long time.
This is a completely bluesky, big concept take on adding to the land, devoid from the kinds of real life limitations like budget, schedule, or logistics that the real land was developed under. Who knows, maybe many of these same ideas were thought up for real and decided as impractical or impossible for some good reason. But in the case of this completely unrestricted hypothetical plan, I've just gone for it. I've still made an attempt at practicality, but it is likely more imaginative than is really possible. The goal was to think up plusses to the as built land to add the kind of experiences I wanted to see while maintaining what is great about what is already there.
The overall concept adds 2 major attractions, 3 minor attractions, two food locations, and a variety of minor additions across the land. I'll step through the elements one by one, with everything labeled on the plan below. New additions are in light blue-grey. The majority of the additions come in the two expansion plots, so I will begin with those.
First, the green planted berm area to the north of the Resistance Forest is developed to create a ruined Jedi Temple complex with 3 attractions. The story of the land expands to include the idea that the Resistance arrived on the planet because of a lost Jedi Temple that was written about in the Jedi Texts. They found it and set up their encampment nearby the crumbling structure in the forest. A spire sticks up above the treeline to guide Jedi towards it, and sits right in the line of sight of guests who enter the main portal into the land.
The first of the three attractions here is a relocated Jedi Training Academy, held in a courtyard at the base of the structure, right behind the existing ruins where the A-Wing is parked. It is organized by members of the Resistance in an effort to recruit and rebuild their ranks. A mysterious Jedi figure emerges from a cave opening to lead the instruction and is soon joined by an Inquisitor who challenges the Jedi and the students. But just like in the current show, they are just a force projection from the temple and the students ultimately win.
The other two attractions in this area are held in the temple and are two forms of a similar experience. The entry hall inside the main temple building has passages leading left and right. The left leads into a kyber cave and into a minor walkthrough attraction. The right continues the ruined stone passages of the temple and starts the queue for the main attraction of this addition.
The kyber cave walkthrough is meant to be a free parallel experience to the lightsaber building experience that hits some of the same elements in a more accessible setting. In the cave filled with shimmering lights, a series of ghostly force voices tells about the role of the crystals and the power of the Force, ending with a "holographic" appearance of a rotating selection of Jedi heroes.
The main attraction takes guests into the inner chamber of the temple for a 20 minute special effects/stunt/multimedia show. The queue and holding rooms pass through a separate series of kyber caves that ultimately lead through large stone doors and into a grand hall. Rows of aged stone and wood benches face forward towards a huge stone gateway, filled with deep darkness. Guests are there to join the Resistance and learn about the legend of the Jedi, but it quickly becomes an action packed trip through the history of the Force when the portal suddenly expands, pulling the whole hall and its guests into it. This show is based on the World Between Worlds and the Trial of the Jedi, introduced in Rebels, and is a way to bring characters from the other trilogies into the land in a story appropriate way.
The resistance fighter who originally was there to teach us about the Jedi becomes the protagonist of the story and comes face to face with a series of villains as the temple steps through time, trying to present him and the guests with the biggest fears and failures of the Jedi. The show features lightsaber stunt fighting, pyro, wind, fog, and a 360 degree LED wall that "transports" the room from story to story. Adversaries include Darth Maul, General Grevious, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, and Kylo Ren. The resistance fighter, revealed to be sensitive to the Force, ultimately faces the trial without fear and emerges back to the temple hall with us. As we exit, we receive a parting message from Yoda and other legends of the Force.
Moving towards the outpost, the next added area is a junkyard right across from the marketplace. A junked ship sits on top of a raised work platform at the entrance of the yard, occasionally starting up with light and sound, but then stalling in a puff of smoke. Inside the yard is a unique type of spinner attraction. I felt like a spinner would add good kinetics and variety of intensity of experience to the land, but I wanted it to feel fully in theme and appropriate to Star Wars.
Therefore, instead of the typical arm spokes from a rotating hub, I have it set up so that the support arms are actually dressed as hanging mechanical ducts that appear to be trailing below the flying vehicles instead of supporting them. Added dangling wires add even more to the look. The story is that the attraction is a test corral for ships under repair, but as they are not 100% fixed yet, they are connected to a central power spoke while we take our test ride. The motion of the vehicles would be somewhat visible through the trees towards the resistance forest, adding some motion to draw guests in that direction.
The other expansion area is to the northwest of the outpost, where there is currently a backstage maintenance building. I am not 100% sure this building can be replaced, so this is a case of my plan being more bluesky than might be possible, but it is the only other obvious place to expand. I am developing this area as a darker side of the marketplace. This is the less desirable part of the outpost and currently the home of the bounty hunters of the planet. It felt right to give them representation in the land since many of the other major groups of the saga are represented in other attractions (Jedi, Resistance, First Order, Smugglers and Pirates).
The area includes one small counter service location themed as a bounty hunters guild canteen and one retail shop where the hunters sell off the various surplus items they "collect" from their targets. The area includes a relocated creature stall that features many more animatronic creatures and a huge Dewback-like creature in a pen that occasionally looks around at guests while it is resting, similar to the dragon figure in Paris. The idea is to make the creature shop more of a experience than just a store.
Behind the streets of this little market expansion is a hangar building with two large open service bays, elevated over the street and ready for ships to land for repairs, and a couple of adjacent landing pads. The First Order presence in the outpost is reinforced by a Tie Fighter parked on one of the pads right behind the existing Tie Echelon.
The main attraction of this added area is a EMV dark ride that uses a scaled down kuka-like motion base to simulate a jet pack flying vehicle. Guests stumble into the Bounty Guild and accidently get enlisted into partnering up with the fiercest hunter on Batuu, whether they want to or not. The mission is to find a rogue smuggler on the planet who has stolen a Mandalorian artifact and recover it at any cost. The trip flies guests through the ship yards and alleys of the outpost before venturing to the forests and caves of the planet, ending with a shootout in the skies above the city. The dark ride would be 2 levels and set up much like Transformers with a mid ride elevator. It would use a combination of physical sets, screen extension, and projection domes to create the action filled adventure.
After those two big expansion areas, there's a collection of smaller additions across the land.
The largest is the addition of the originally planned table service restaurant in the yard behind Oga's Cantina. This is a large dining space, so it could be set up as some kind of a dinner show like originally rumored. I think the land really could use something like that.
Next, a minor change is the redressing of the small courtyard by Droid Depot to be a enclosed droid test and play yard. I felt like there should be a defined area for guests to play with their new droids in a controlled space since that isn't possible anywhere else in the land. There could be an interactive animated droid figure located there to interact with guests and their new droids.
The remaining additions are all similar in that they are an effort in adding some kinetics and traveling ships to the land. The existing soundscape simulates flying ships surprisingly well, but if this is a bluesky concept, I decided to go for a bigger and more complicated solution to visually show traveling ships. I've tried to do this 2 ways, with moving ship props and with large outdoor screens that blend into the world and show a sky with traveling ships.
For the physical ships, I've included 3 that are all a little different. One would be a delivery type ship on top of the new restaurant that would travel back and forth on a track at random times of the day. At it's farthest point, it would be out of view from anywhere in the land. This would primarily be visible along the stretch from the Millennium Falcon to the Tie Echelon.
The second would be a Tie Fighter located right behind the First Order Cargo that would lift off to be visible above the shop and then "fly away" by sliding quickly out of view. It could then do the reverse and land, repeating this cycle at various times through the day. This would primarily only be visible inside the courtyard by the Tie Echelon. I think it would be an incredibly cool sight to see a huge vehicle lift up just behind a building.
The third physical ship is actually inside Rise of the Resistance, specifically the outdoor holding area between the preshow and the transport. In the area that is now vegetation, I am adding a service area and an X Wing that takes off to hover a few feet above the ground while guests are waiting to load. The base of the vehicle, where the mechanics that lift the vehicle are, would be hidden by the mess of equipment and a service catwalk. Droid run back and forth along that catwalk, adding more kinetics. The idea is to add more frantic and exciting activity to this area of the attraction, as if there really is a group of ships about to take off.
The other way of showing ships with large screens is more complicated. I thought a lot about this idea over the year. It was actually the first idea I had, days after visiting the land. I can't be 100% sure it would work, but I think there's a way this could be possible. The important part about the location of the screens is that they need to be well framed to blend in and they need to be inset deep into the frame so that the perspective can be controlled to just a straight on view. If you could see the screen from 180 degrees, the perspective would be off on the edges. But if it is limited to just the front, it would look more realistic. I think this could work. With advancements in computer rendering, I also believe that it would be possible for the video to live match the sky color and weather pattern behind, creating a hopefully seamless effect.
In this plan, I am locating the screens in two places. First, screens could be built into natural stone arches in the rockwork above the Millennium Falcon. These would mostly just be visible from this courtyard area and could show steady traffic flying by in the distance.
The other location would be built into the raised service bays above the new bounty hunter attraction. The rear face of the framed bays could show ships periodically landing and taking off and occasional traffic in the distance. The depth of these framed bays means that these screens would only be visible straight on from the main corridor along the north of the land.
For the musical component, I am imagining the kinds of buskers you would see in a real marketplace, such as a solo exotic instrument player and a guitar and horn duo. I also imagined a droid band built into the bed of a transport cart, playing a variety of weird percussion instruments and accompanied by a live singer and bass player.
For characters, the plan would be to do exactly what they have now but expand the variety of characters. In an ideal situation, I would like to see Rey, Chewie, Vi, C3PO, R2D2, resistance pilots, rebels, Kylo Ren, Stormtroopers of various types, First Order Generals, aliens, smugglers, bounty hunters, Mandalorians, and droids. There are many natural stages and performance spaces already built into the land, so it would be fantastic to see those used by a large cast of characters that inhabit the land and act out a real interactive story. It would also be great to have some stunt performers that can have occasional minor fights through the land, like lightsaber battles or shootouts on the rooftops. I know all of this was in the original plan, and would love to see it.
For the creature component, I think it would really add a lot to the land to add some walking creature and vehicle costumes. I imagined a stilt based First Order walker costume that patrols the streets, a stilt based Blarg costume that pulls a cart across the land occasionally, and a walking Bantha costume that slowly wanders the outpost, like Universal has done with Triceratops costumes in many parks.
