Disneyland Admits Defeat On ‘Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’, Finally Adding OT Characters Like Luke Skywalker And Darth Vader
After spending the last six-years denying the reality that very few want spend more time with the Sequel Trilogy, Disneyland has officially thrown in the towel and announced that starting later this year, they will be finally allowing the classic franchise icons that fans actually want to see, such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Darth Vader, to roam the grounds of their Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction.
As made explicitly clear by members of Lucasfilm and Disney Imagineering while giving a preview of the then-under-construction ‘Star Wars land’ to attendees of the 2017 Star Wars Celebration event, Galaxy’s Edge would see its in-universe narrative set firmly within the franchise’s “modern day”, thus limiting the media and characters it had to play with strictly to those seen in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, and other such Disney-produced media entries.
“We wanted to build new Star Wars stories, new Star Wars destinations,” said Walt Disney Imagineering portfolio creative executive Scott Trowbridge. “It’s a new planet. It’s a new place.”
But in ultimately realizing that one can’t just force an audience to like a new character or story, especially at the expense of specifically ignoring historical favorites, a surprise post made to the official Star Wars website saw the House of Mouse begrudgingly open Galaxy’s Edge‘s doors to George Lucas’ Original Trilogy:
“Beginning April 29, 2026, Black Spire Outpost is is expanding its timeline, introducing elements from the events of the original film trilogy. As a result, visitors to Batuu, the planet inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, may cross paths with a few familiar faces — from Darth Vader and Imperial stormtroopers strutting through the streets to Han Solo and Chewbacca reuniting at the Millennium Falcon, all while John Williams’ iconic musical themes swirl through the air.”
“The original Galaxy’s Edge timeline placed Batuu during the era of the Resistance and the First Order, between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. The new timeline will roll back several decades, expanding to span the events of Return of the Jedi and The Mandalorian.
To this end, the attraction will also see the first-time addition of such iconic OT characters as Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader to its cast of meet-and-greet characters, which currently include R2-D2, Rey, Ahsoka Tano and Din Djarin (It gets to a point where it’s outright embartassing that they really thought fans would rather hang out with Rey or Vi Moradi than the franchise’s most iconic characters).
Further, a number of shops will also be receiving tweaks to their presentations, with the current First Order Cargo set to be refreshed as Black Spire Surplus, a “sort of military supply shop”.
According to Lucasfilm senior creative executive Matt Martin, the Black Spire’s backstory centers on its founding “by two former clone troopers who fought alongside each other in the Clone Wars and became close friends. Years later, one of those soldiers joined the Empire and served as an Imperial stormtrooper, while the other signed up with the Rebellion. But as they got older, they decided to retire and team up as friends and business partners, opening their new venture on Batuu.”
Similar ‘historical’ aesthetic tweaks will also be rolled out across “Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities, Savi’s Workshop, and Droid Depot to ensure those locales feel like a part of the earlier timeframe.”
“Dok is always getting new shipments and new antiques,” added Martin. “We’re going to see some new items on display — potentially some Easter eggs that people will recognize from some of the more recent live-action TV series.”
As noted above, despite their announcement today, January 14th, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will not be ready to roll out its full swath of updates until April 29th.
