Lucasfilm Ever wanted to make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs? Yeah, me too.
Well now you can get as close to the real thing as possible, as a new theme park – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (at Disneyland Resort) – is opening next year, where visitors will be able to fill their boots with a whole host of Star Wars-themed shenanigans.
The new, 14-acre theme parks will be available on both coasts, with Disneyland Resort in California opening in summer 2019, and Walt Disney World resort in Florida revealing their new attractions in late autumn, 2019.
One of the centrepieces of the new attraction will be a replica of the infamous Millennium Falcon. Fans will be able to sit in the ship’s cockpit – which has 200 controls – and operate the vessel with just a few other co-pilots.
As well as taking the Falcon down Smuggler’s Run, you can also climb onboard one of the Empire’s Star Destroyers, where guests will be greeted by 50 audio-animatronic Stormtroopers, as NY Times reports.
The ride will then culminate in a face-off with Kylo Ren, so you better practice your lightsaber skills.
Disney are investing huge sums of money in their new attractions, with estimates $24 billion will be put into them over the next five years. Which is more than the company spent when buying Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm combined.
Bob Chapek, Disney’s theme park chairman, said:
It can’t just be special — it has to be spectacular.
This is what the inside of the cockpit looks like. Pictured is Bob Chapek, who is leading the Disney Parks charge. pic.twitter.com/B2rI3E2PA6
— Brooks Barnes (@brooksbarnesNYT) November 16, 2018
Scott Trowbridge, the Disney creative executive overseeing the Galaxy’s Edge projects, said:
It’s a personalised intergalactic ride — live your own ‘Star Wars’ story. If you crash into a wall, that’s what you will see out the cockpit window.
The Millennium Falcom ride will reportedly use real-time video rendering technology to respond to the way the guests use the 200 cockpit controls.
While John Williams, the legendary composer behind the Star Wars music and countless other film scores, will be creating new music for the theme parks.
And if that’s not enough, after you’ve completed the Kessel Run, faced off against Kylo Ren, and escaped the crossfire of a battle between the First Order and the fighters of the Resistance, you’ll be able to cap it all off with a stay in a Star Wars-themed hotel.
Guests will be transported to their accommodation via a shuttle pod, which takes them from Earth to a hotel ‘in space’, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The hotel, however, is not set to open at the same time as the rest of the Star Wars parks, so you might want to find yourself some other accommodation if you’re going to head to a galaxy far, far away soon. There’s plenty of other hotels to choose from, though.
Disney also recently unveiled Pixar Pier, another new attraction full of everyone’s favourite Pixar characters, but with Toy Story 4 just around the corner, it looks like it might need updating already.
Until then, there’s plenty to keep film fans entertained.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.