Season of the Force seasonal event to debut at Disney's Hollywood Studios in early 2016

Aug 15, 2015 in "Season of the Force"

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Posted: Saturday August 15, 2015 6:56pm EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

Seizing on the popularity of Star Wars Weekends, Disney has today announced a new Star Wars celebration event beginning in early 2016.

Season of the Force brings new experiences to both coasts.

In Tomorrowland at Disneyland park, guests will explore the Star Wars galaxy with special entertainment, themed food locations and Hyperspace Mountain – a reimagining of the classic Space Mountain attraction in which guests will join an X-wing Starfighter battle.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will feature a new fireworks spectacular set to the iconic score of the Star Wars movies on weekend nights.

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YodaManNov 27, 2015

For those complaining about a lack of celebrities, Watto's Grotto has been hosting visiting artists occasionally. And based on Instagram, it seems Ashley Eckstein is there both today and tomorrow.

FigmentJediNov 24, 2015

Pretty sure the damage was done to "Star Wars is serious business" Hardcore Star Wars fans with Hyperspace Hoopla back in the day or the Expanded Universe decanonization.

ford91exploderNov 24, 2015

Wow after looking at the Pix in the Micechat review it looks like the Cheap-n-Nasty disease first noted at WDW has spread to DL, The cantina was AWFUL, DW went with her BFF to the SW Celebration and that cantina which was meant to last 4 days looked FAR better than this. Disney is taking a real risk of turning hardcore SW fans OFF on the new product if they keep doing crap like this.

TP2000Nov 23, 2015

I went to Season Of The Force and Launch Bay last night. While there are a couple of spots inside Launch Bay that fall flat on their face (the cheap and lifeless "Cantina" set and the self-congratulatory Lucas Executive sizzle reel theater) I thought the bulk of it was fantastic and very well done. The Micechat review lost me when they started complaining that the alien language Aurabesh text on the walls was grammatically incorrect. If you are hanging out with people who can translate Aurabesh, you need to take their review in context of the special world they live in.:cool: Launch Bay is a slick museum exhibit to spend 20 minutes browsing through, plus a themed Chewbacca meet n greet and a nice gift shop. What were people expecting? That said, the blowout hit of Season Of The Force was Hyperspace Mountain. WOW!

CrazydisneyfanlukeNov 23, 2015

I have to say, this makes me worried for DHS launch bay. The execution of the whole attraction is bad, and quickly put together.

JohnDNov 23, 2015

So is it or isn't it at HS? I'm beginning to hear more of a generic ongoing vibe rather than a particular seasonal event.

ToTBellHopNov 23, 2015

Just goes to show, they could sit a plush Yoda on a bench and call it a festival and 40,000 people would show up on opening day.

Travel JunkieNov 23, 2015

Depends on what you mean by bust. I agree with most of the sentiment about the look of the area. It is a creative bust. However it is not a bust in terms of crowds. It is about as packed as you will ever see TL. There is no west coast Star Wars Weekends so this is a new type of thing for California. Hyper Space Mountain is the big winner with wait times over an hour within minutes of opening and Fast Passes (the old paper FP version) gone in a couple hours.

jrhwdwNov 23, 2015

MiceChat is calling DL's a bust? True? http://micechat.com/115754-star-wars-season-of-the-force/

Kman101Nov 23, 2015

I think we all know the mindframe of mgmt, so it wouldn't surprise me if Disneyland did keep this seasonal and DHS keeps the stuff for the time being. Seems like a decent amount of work is going into Launch Bay. I mean, after seeing what I saw in videos and pics for Disneyland's version, why is it taking so long? LOL. The interior left everything to be desired.

Jones14Nov 23, 2015

It certainly would make sense. Disneyland has to get rid of their experiences (Star Tours and Launch Bay notwithstanding) eventually to get Tomorowland back. Hollywood Studios has no such problem, considering the park is starving for anything to do. The only thing that Hollywood will be doing different is the addition of fireworks and the subtraction of Hyperspace Mountain. Why confuse your guests with a seasonal event when your offerings will remain the same year round?

indigoNov 23, 2015

Just checked and Disney has scrubbed any references to "Season of the Force" at DHS. Now it's "Star Wars Experiences" which isn't very exciting, so we have to assume there will be some other name. There's a media event on Dec 4th, but does anyone know why they're making this change? Could it be that where as the Disneyland event truly will be seasonal, the DHS experiences will be year-round.

jrhwdwNov 22, 2015

I know, I'm talking about the dates after the party. It looked to me that YodaMan knew something when he replied to that post wishing the the fireworks would start the next day for guests. Unless I read his post wrong?

ToTBellHopNov 22, 2015

Now that I search, I see those posts, too. Still nothing official from Disney though. Surely they want to announce those dessert parties with enough time for them to sell out.